Exorcist Innocence and Wizard Wand
by YugureMaho
Summary: HP/DGM X-over. Contains Laven. The golden trio finds themselves in a different war after Hermione aparates hastily- one where people calling themselves Exorcists fight wielding a substance they refer to as Innocence... T for mild yaoi.
1. We don't know where 'here' is

**We don't own D. Gray-Man or Harry Potter, though we wish we were genius enough to write something half as cool.**

**Even though romance isn't one of the 'main genres', it'll still be in here. Don't like, don't read.**

--

What had happened? One minute Harry, Ron, and Hermione had been in their tent, discussing the possible locations for the remaining horcruxes, and the next Hermione was in a panic, grabbing everything important and shoving it into her handbag frantically. Within seconds, she had emptied the canvas tent and was grabbing onto Harry and Ron's' sleeves, preparing to apparate. The sensation of being squeezed through a tube was worse than usual, lasting longer.

When it disappeared, both Harry and Ron stumbled. Harry landed in a faceplant against a flagstone floor, but Ron regained his balance quickly and decided to voice his bewilderment.

"What the bloody hell was that all about, Hermione?" he asked, getting no answer. When he turned to see why, he found her pinned to a wall by the tip of a sword held by a longhaired man with a scowl on his face.

Harry pushed himself off the floor, straightening his glasses.

"Yeah, and why did my face hit stone floor instead of grass and dirt like it normally does?" he asked slightly grumpily. He also turned when he got no reply, but Ron was already working to fix the problem. He had already drawn his wand and was aiming it at the man with raven black hair.

"Expeliarmus!" he shouted, and the man's sword went crashing to the floor.

A white-haired midget ran up, attempting to drag the man backwards by his hair.

"Don't be so mean, Kanda! She hasn't done anything wrong!" he managed to yell before a deathglare was directed at him.

"Yeah, Yuu, don't be so mean to the lady," came a voice from behind Harry. He jumped around to look at its owner. Floppy red hair nearly covered a green eye and an eyepatch, even while restrained by a green headband around the guy's head.

The deathglare was immediately redirected at this new arrival, accompanied by the sword, though exactly when the man named Kanda had picked it up, Harry wasn't sure. He carefully sidestepped to avoid being accidentally injured by the sharp weapon.

"Shut up, baka Usagi. You too, Moyashi."

"My name is Allen, you jerk!"

Hermione still had her back pressed against the wall, stunned. When Ron and Harry repeated their questions, however, she stirred.

"I… I meant to take us to the cliff over the cave where you and Dumbledore found the locket, Harry, but… I guess something went wrong. I thought we could find a clue there. I have no idea where we are now… I panicked when the wards around out camp were breached."

Understanding dawned on Ron and Harry.

"Harry, is it possible for something to have been built there since you last saw it?" Ron asked quietly, looking around at the trio of strange people that were now glaring, talking, and laughing.

Harry shook his head, not voicing what he was actually thinking.

_What the hell is going on?_

The three weirdoes took notice of the bewildered trio once again as Hermione began digging through her bag. She pulled out a small volume entitled _The Art and Limitations of Apparition_.

Flipping through to a chapter on accidental miscalculations, she sat and began to read.

"What are you three still doing here?" Kanda asked with a glare.

"Who are you people?" the white-haired kid asked innocently.

""Hi! I'm Lavi, nice to meet you. Where're you guys from?" contributed the third.

"I think I like the Lavi guy best," Ron commented under his breath to Harry, "He's more polite than the other two."

Harry nodded almost imperceptibly, then proceeded to answer all three of their questions.

"I'm… Harry, and this is Ron. That's Hermione over there with the book. We're still here because we don't know where 'here' is, and I don't think I should tell you where we're from. It's nice to meet you…" He trailed off, waiting for the other two to introduce themselves, although he had already gathered their names from their argument.

"This is Allen, and that grouch is Yuu, though he prefers to be called Kanda," Lavi answered, eyeing Ron's brilliant orange hair interestedly.

"Pleasure," Ron answered distastefully, glaring at Kanda.

"Aha! I found it!" Hermione shouted from behind them.

"Aha! You found what?" Allen asked. Hermione ignored him and spoke to Harry and Ron.

"I think I may have accidentally transported us into the town near the cliffs. You know, the one with the orphanage Riddle lived in when he was young," she said, careful not to say Voldemort's name in case she might shock the others unaccustomed to hearing his name spoken aloud.

Harry was ready to accept this explanation when Allen and Lavi interjected with questions.

"Who's this Riddle fellow?"

"What orphanage?"

Ron and Harry glanced at each other, wondering if Hermione was wrong for the first time in her life. Allen and Lavi waited expectantly for an answer, ignoring Kanda as he let out an irritated 'che' and walked past them.

Harry spoke first.

"Riddle is… well, he was… no, he still is…" For some reason, he seemed to be having troubles speaking. He looked to Ron, who shrugged as if to say 'don't look at me mate, I won't do any better than you'.

"Tom Riddle is a boy who stayed in an orphanage until he turned eleven, and then went to a… private school where he learned… more advanced stuff than he was learning before and now he's…" damnit, why was it so hard to explain? He'd barely remembered the Statue of Secrecy in time to amend his story! "Well, he renamed himself 'Voldemort' and is… terrorizing our country."

Lavi looked thoroughly confused, but Allen seemed to have caught that Harry hadn't been telling the whole truth.

"Does this 'Voldemort' happen to be really fat, walk around with an umbrella and wear a tall top hat?" Lavi asked, wondering if the Earl had created an alias in another part of the world.

Harry burst out laughing. Voldemort, walk around with an umbrella? It was unthinkable, and Harry would be ashamed to be trying to kill him if he did. To be more exact, he'd be ashamed of nearly being killed by Voldemort if he wore a top hat.

Now Allen was confused, too. This 'Voldemort' obviously wasn't the Earl, and judging by Harry's reaction, he thought the comparison quite funny. Hadn't he ever heard of the Millennium Earl?

"Why are you laughing at me?" Lavi asked, sounding hurt. He turned to Allen. "Allen-neko, Harry is being mean to me!"

Hermione looked up from her book when she heard the endearing Japanese word. They couldn't be in… no that was way to far from where she had intended to go. But then, the fact they hadn't heard of Voldemort made sense if…

"Is it possible we're in Japan, Allen-san?" she asked, carefully composing her face to hide the laughter that was bubbling in her throat as she realized the boy had just been called a cat.

Allen blinked. "Japan? No, we're not in Japan. We'd all be dead long ago if we were in Japan."

It was Ron's turn to be confused. What was so wrong with Japan that they'd all be dead if they were there?

A girl carrying a clipboard walked up to Allen and Lavi, opening her mouth to tell them something before she noticed the other three.

"Who are you three?" she asked, not realizing the less-than-courteous Kanda had posed the same question less than a minute before.

Lavi turned to answer her question immediately.

"Lennalee, this is Harry, Ron and Hermione, who randomly popped into existence in front of Kanda a few minutes ago."

Lennalee blinked.

Hermione was glaring at Lavi, and looked about to burst into shouts.

"That's Granger to you, Lavi."

"Well excuse me for not knowing your family name."

Ron decided that he didn't really like the redhead as much as he had thought he did.

"Well, what are we standing here in the hall for?" Allen asked suddenly, "It's time for lunch and I'm starving!"

Lavi and Lennalee both burst out laughing.

"Yes, God forbid the most bottomless stomach in existence be deprived of a meal," Lavi said through gasps of laughter.

--

**Yuugre: Hmm… overly rushed, but I hope you liked it.**

**Maho: -facepalm- I wasn't the one who made everyone completely confused, I swear… **

**Yuugre: Reviews are appreciated, and we hope you'll read the next chapter!**

**Maho: If you review, you'll get one of Yuugre's cookies.**


	2. You ordered soba?

**Maho: For some reason, the first lines of the text keep getting doubled. If you can see it too, please tell us so that we know it's not just our computer.**

**Yuugre: The Laven hasn't even started yet, and Lavi calling Allen a cat doesn't count. I'll get the Laven in there whenever Nii-chan isn't reading over my shoulder.**

**Nii-chan: What the heck is Laven?**

**Maho: I know the author's note is getting way to long, but we have some cookies to hand out. Kaichou-chan, Laven Walker, AirElemental101, Evil Snail Overlord, ClaymoreDarkAlicia and Pedo-Rabbit: I'd suggest you claim your cookies before Yuugre eats them. Kamiam714, I think we have some leftover cake… aha, here it is. You can take the last slice.**

**We don't own D. Gray-Man, nor do we own Harry Potter. Our lives would be nightmarish if we did.**

--

As soon as Lavi and Lennalee had gained control over their laughter, they beckoned for Harry, Ron and Hermione to follow them. It dawned on Harry that they were going the same direction as the irritable Kanda, but he didn't mention it for the sake of food.

Lavi and Allen chatted happily, only seeming to take breath when the other started speaking. Lennalee and Hermione were talking rather sporadically, with heavy pauses after nearly every statement. Hermione wasn't having as much trouble as Harry with censoring her answers, but she wasn't exactly expert. Lennalee had obviously been able to fill in some of the gaps on her own.

Ron, who was the one currently carrying Slytherin's locket, walked silently beside Harry, who likewise didn't utter a sound.

Something Lavi had said made Allen turn bright red, an interesting clash with his white hair.

Hermione and Lennalee stopped talking after Hermione sank into deep thought.

Allen and Lavi noticed the change in atmosphere and fell silent.

Time dragged. Nobody spoke for several minutes. They even seemed to walk slower.

Hermione broke the silence, speaking in barely a whisper.

"Ron, give the locket to Harry. It's his turn."

The spell was shattered as Lavi turned to see what she was talking about and Lennalee started chatting with Hermione again now that she had finished thinking. Ron gladly pulled the chain over his head and passed it to Harry.

"I swear that thing just gets heavier and heavier," Ron commented, rubbing the back of his neck, "Until I might as well be crawling across the ground from the weight."

Harry nodded in agreement, ignoring Lavi and Allen's stares as he tucked it inside his shirt.

They reached the cafeteria soon after that, the doors flung open to welcome the hungry people flocking towards it. Ron noticed the stares directed at their group, but tried to pay them no mind. Being around people again after hiding from civilization for several weeks was just unnerving him, he told himself.

Allen walked right up the ordering window and started reeling off a list of dishes, causing Hermione's head to spin alarmingly as she tried to remember what was on the menu. Apparently anything and everything was on the menu, because his list contained all sorts of food from dozens of countries.

Lavi went next, ordering a significant amount less than Allen. They both stood aside as Lennalee ordered, then looked expectantly at the trio who hadn't ordered, silently urging them to order something.

Hermione looked around at Harry and Ron, who just shrugged and took a step forward.

"Three baked potatoes, two chicken legs and a large glass of pumpkin juice," Ron intoned before looking at Harry as if to tell him it was his turn.

Harry thought for a moment, and then named the first foods that came to mind.

"A large slice of corned beef, a bowl of egg drop soup, a baked potato and some pumpkin juice."

Hermione's jaw had fallen open as they made their orders, but didn't remain that way for long.

"You two can't eat that much."

Harry and Ron exchanged an amused look before answering simultaneously.

"Yes we can."

Rolling their eyes, they stood aside to clear the way for her to order. Lavi Lennalee and Allen also seemed to be somewhat stunned, but recovered just as quickly as Hermione had.

"What is pumpkin juice?" Lavi asked.

"Cool, together you eat almost as much as Allen!" Lennalee said through stifled laughter.

"Yeah, what is pumpkin juice?" Allen asked, repeating Lavi's question.

Hermione finished ordering and Allen went to get his food, followed by Lavi. Once everyone had picked up their order, they set off to find a table that could stand the weight of all the food.

The only table empty enough to even hold half of the food was unfortunately Kanda's table. The raven-haired teen looked up irritably as they approached.

"Moyashi, you've ordered almost twice as much food as you usually do. What's wrong this time?" he asked sarcastically. Allen rolled his eyes and sat down.

"There are three more people here than there normally are, Kanda."

"Hey Yuu! I hope you don't mind if we sit here!"

Kanda glared at Lavi for a moment before returning to eating his soba.

Lennalee walked off to sit at a different table, not wanting to deal with the explosive results that were sure to come to pass with Allen and Lavi sitting so near Kanda.

Allen set his mountain of food down across from Kanda and began to eat. Harry and Ron were quick to follow, neither wanting to be beside the irritable samurai. Lavi sat as far as possible from Kanda on his side of the table, realizing that he had pushed it far enough and he would get skewered if he tried to annoy Yuu anymore.

Hermione rolled her eyes and walked around the table to sit between Lavi and Kanda.

Lavi's jaw dropped as Hermione set her food down.

"You ordered _soba_?" he asked incredulously, earning looks from everyone else on the table. Allen raised an eyebrow, but was unable to comment through the mass of food shoved into his mouth. Ron was similarly incapacitated, as was Harry.

"Yes, Lavi, I did. What of it?"

Lavi simply shook his head and returned to his food.

--

**Yuugre: Hopefully this chapter doesn't look extremely short…**

**Maho: Poor Yuugre didn't get to do anything more than have Lavi make Allen blush…**

**Yuugre: My poor Lavi is being deprived! (And it's all Nii-chan's fault!)**

**Maho: I'm sure Lavi'll survive. He was probably talking to Allen about something perverted, anyway, so he's not as deprived as you might think. Anyway, we have some freshly baked oatmeal raisin cookies for those of you who review. If you want a different kind, we have leftovers from last chapter… but if you want cake instead, I'd suggest you wait until I have the time to bake one. (But don't let that stop you from reviewing!)**


	3. Killed a whosawhatsit?

**Maho: I'm trying to fix the double first line, but I might just end up putting completely random and underused words there, just so that there isn't anything repeated that doesn't need to be.**

**Yuugre: I've tried to get some Laven into this chapter, but it isn't very prominent. I'll apologize as many times as you tell me to, but in replacement of Nii-chan I now have a parent walking in every few minutes to make sure I'm doing my homework (which I'm obviously not doing).**

**Maho: Instead of handing out cookies in the AN like I did last chapter, I'll now hand out cookies (and cake) via reply to your review. I do have cake now, and an assortment of candy if you have enough of those…**

**--**

Lennalee insisted that they visit her 'Nii-san' (whatever that was) after lunch, arguing that it would be best that he knew there were outsiders in the building.

Over lunch Harry and Ron had been able to gather that they were at the organization called the Black Order's headquarters, and that it was nearly impossible to get there without exact instructions. They had also learned, through the wondrous art of listening quietly, that Kanda was always a grouch and that he almost never ate anything other than soba. Neither of them had realized how useful paying attention was before. No wonder Hermione constantly told them they would understand perfectly if they listened to the professors. Kanda had left with an irritated 'che' as soon as the last bit of food on his tray had disappeared.

They hadn't even entered the office Lennalee had brought them to when a man in a long white coat and hat came pirouetting out of the room on a wave of paperwork.

"Lennaleeeeee! Did you bring me coffeeeeeee?" he said through what looked like tears of joy. The paperwork carried him toward Harry, who sidestepped carefully, mindful of the immense amount of paper underneath his feet.

--

Komui pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose with his forefinger.

"I see. You three were somewhere you won't reveal, and you thought someone had attacked your camp so you panicked… and then had the misfortune to materialize in front of _Kanda_, of all exorcists," he paused, a pitying look overwhelming his features, "and then met Allen and Lavi, who invited you to lunch? It's not likely, but you all seem to have no idea where you are. Let me formally welcome you to Black Order Headquarters! I can tell you haven't told me everything, but hopefully I shall learn that in due time."

It was quite a speech, overstretched and fabricated enough that Harry and Ron had lost track of the meaning about halfway through, relying on Hermione to translate for them.

They were obviously not excused after he stopped talking, though, because all he did was sip his coffee and nod at someone who had entered the room behind them. When Ron turned to see who it was, he noticed that Allen and Lavi had fallen asleep after their initial explanation. Lavi was leaning against the arm of the sofa he had sat himself on, with Allen's head against his ribcage. Lavi was snoring lightly; his hand was in Allen's hair as if he had been petting it before he had fallen asleep.

_Weird, _Ron thought before amending his observation a bit. _But I suppose it could seem almost cute if you look at it right…_

A sniffling, bespectacled man in a lab coat walked in carrying a huge pile of papers. Several floated from the top, landing on the floor where monstrous mounds of paper already resided. He set the paperwork carefully down on a corner of Komui's desk and picked up one of the documents that had fallen to the floor.

"These are your room numbers, and a map of the tower. It was a rush job, but it got done quickly enough. Sorry we couldn't get multiple maps, but I'm sure you can make do with one."

"No problem," Hermione answered, shrugging and accepting the papers. She drew her wand and tapped them, creating another two copies.

Komui was instantly intrigued, jumping out of his chair to examine each of the copies as Hermione handed one each to Harry and Ron. He continued to study them as the man dug in his pocket and grabbed three sets of keys and handing them to the wizards. Harry looked down at his copy, trying to find his room on the map. It took him several seconds, and he was an expert at reading maps of large castle-like structures. (The Marauder's map had actually given him a good skill, other than sneaking around without being caught.)

Hermione nodded as she found her room on the map. She half-turned to leave when Komui saw fit to voice his curiosity.

"May I see that stick you used?" he asked, sounding for all the world like an excited kid. Hermione reluctantly parted with her wand, handing it to the Chinese man slowly.

He was fascinated, turning it this way and that, studying every inch of it.

"I must show this to Hevlaska. She will be thrilled to learn of such an interesting object, and it may prove useful…"

Hermione snatched back her wand indignantly when Komui started waving it in a bad imitation of what she had done.

Harry grumbled something, but Ron couldn't quite hear what he said. It sounded something like 'You'll do no such thing', but it could have been something else entirely.

Stashing her wand in her pants pocket, Hermione turned to leave.

"Don't leave yet," Komui called before she could take more than two steps, "We need to have Hevlaska check all of you to make sure you're human. We should have done it first, of course, but I forgot."

The man who had brought in the paperwork slumped slightly, seeming put out.

"You didn't even check them first, Supervisor Komui?"

Komui smiled and shook his head.

--

The strange elevator that moved up and down the center of the tower took them down to the personage called 'Hevlaska'. Allen and Lavi were still rubbing sleep from their eyes when they had finished descending and saw 'Hevlaska'.

To say she was anything but beautiful would have been an insult in Hermione's eyes, but Ron and Harry both thought the same thing:

_What the heck is that thing?_

They all stumbled as the elevator thing jolted to a stop. Lavi nearly fell, but caught himself just before he knocked Allen over.

Hevlaska began to speak, and it took a few seconds for any of the wizards to understand what she was saying.

"_Who are these who you bring before me, Komui? We cannot have found three new exorcists so soon."_

"Not exorcists, Hevlaska, but a trio of young people who randomly appeared in front of Kanda as he was walking to lunch," Komui answered, a wry smile on his face.

"_I pity them."_

"As do I, Hevlaska. I need you to check that they are human, as they circumvented the gatekeeper quite effectively."

Hevlaska reached toward Hermione with her many arms, as if she were about to judge her synchronization with an Innocence.

"_She's human,"_ Hevlaska declared almost before her arms even reached Hermione. Almost like water, she moved on to Ron.

"_Also human."_

She reached for Harry, who was rubbing his scar to alleviate the tingling sensation coming from it. Hevlaska faltered slightly, arms slowing and quivering as if a weight had descended on them.

Harry's scar seared with pain milliseconds before Hevlaska touched him.

_A flash of green light filled the clearing that just moments ago had hidden Harry Potter. A Death Eater fell, dead._

"_Where is he?" Voldemort hissed at the remaining Death Eaters, "I told you to call me if you found the Potter boy, not an empty tent. Where is he?!"_

_The Death Eaters shivered, some of them stuttering a reply._

"_Never mind. We will find him soon, no matter where he hides himself."_

_They all nodded hastily at his words, fearing that they too may fall dead to the ground otherwise._

Harry's eyes flickered open, but everything was a blur. Where were his glasses? He groped around to find them, but was hampered by several bodies surrounding him on all sides. Five faces hovered in his vision, and it confused him. Why were there so many? Shouldn't he be alone with Hermione and Ron?

"Harry, mate, are you all right?" One of the faces asked. Harry suspected it was Ron.

"Glasses," he grunted weakly, attempting to sit up. He was pushed back down none-to-gently by several sets of hands. A pair of demolished glasses was placed over his eyes, but they didn't help much. Harry couldn't see well past all the cracks that ran across the surface.

"Repairo," Hermione said firmly from his left, causing the cracks to recede and disappear. Everything came into sharp focus, including the people holding him down. Lavi, Allen and Ron were all kneeling around him with their hands pinning him down.

"Wha' happened?" he asked, trying to push away their hands. He was more than unsuccessful, his attempts halting as his stomach twisted and he turned his head to the side in time to vomit all over Lavi's knees.

"Gross," Allen commented dryly as Lavi jumped up in disgust, freeing Harry's right shoulder.

"You had a fit, screaming and thrashing. Scared everyone, you did," Ron answered quietly as he began to stand. Allen also tried to stand, but he slipped in the sick. He would have landed flat on his back, but Lavi caught him, careful not to step in the vomit.

Harry sat up, freed from the hands.

"Sorry if I scared any of you, it happens a lot. It wasn't anything abnormal," Harry said, trying to reassure the exorcists. They didn't appear convinced, but Harry needn't have bothered saying anything.

"_What did you just see, boy?"_ Hevlaska asked. Harry turned, surprised that she knew he had seen anything. Hermione and Ron looked at Harry sharply, Hermione actually opening her mouth to speak before thinking better of it and remaining silent.

Harry also opened his mouth to speak, but nothing more than a stunned 'uhhh' fell from it. Komui watched Harry interestedly, wondering what he had 'seen' that might have interested Hevlaska.

Confused, Harry turned toward Hevlaska slowly. He didn't know how she knew that he'd seen anything, and he had absolutely no idea why she would want to know specifics.

"Yeah, Harry, what did you see? You usually try to avoid showing that you're still having the visions, and we never get to hear about them. Tell us, please," Hermione said, and Harry could swear she went doe-eyed for a moment.

"Well…" he started, unsure on how to go about telling what he had seen with so many people around that he didn't know well. He normally only told Ron, Hermione and Dumbledore, and Dumbledore was dead.

"Well…" he started again, fixating his eyes on a point between his feet, "Voldemort found our camp, he was there in person. He was so angry we got away that… he killed one of the Death Eaters. I'm not sure who it was; they were all wearing masks, as usual. And he said… he swore he would find me soon."

Hermione and Ron were mortified, but the others were just plain confused.

"Voldemort?" Allen asked at the same time as Lavi asked "Killed a whosawhatsit?"

So much for the Statute of Secrecy.

**--**

**Maho: I intervened halfway through insisting that there had to be a plotline, sorry that it just ended up cheesy. At least Yuugre is happy that she got more than a single blush in this time.**

**Yuugre: La-ven! La-ven! La-ven!**

**Maho: Yeah… even though three minutes ago she was whining about the epic fail of her attempts. Anyway, we want to know: longer chapters less often, or shorter chapters more often? We can't seem to put this dilemma to rest, so tell us in your review, or vote in the poll in our profile if and when we get it up…**


	4. borrow a book

Quintessence – perfect essence; perfect peace

**Maho: Introducing our anti-double-line-thingamajig: obscure words with their definitions on the first line, so you can read it twice and remember it! Actually, it's just to make Yuugre pick up a dictionary every once in a while. If the problem persists and the words become annoying we'll have to find a different solution.**

**Yuugre: We got the poll up in our profile, so go vote! For those of you who told us your preference in your review, thank you! The question: Do you want longer chapters less often (a 6-9 page chapter every few days to a week), or shorter chapters more often (a 3-5 page chapter every 1-2 days, with the understanding that one of us being unable to type, being ill, being grounded, having to much homework, having an unpaid bill for our internet or writers' block might delay chapters anywhere from a few days to many weeks and you will feel deprived and we will feel guilty.)? Please don't ask for longer chapters more often, we just can't do it.**

**Maho: I think you'll get where Yuugre is going with this about halfway through. Just know this: I claim no rights over this chapter. If Yuugre wants to sell it to some crazed madman who wants to publish it in thirty countries as his own work, that's her problem. I had no part in this.**

**--**

Lavi sighed as he walked back toward his room. He had been truly intrigued to find that these people were experiencing much the same terrors as the exorcists, on a slightly smaller scale. This 'Voldemort' whose name seemed to bring fear into their very being seemed a lot like the Earl, except less fat and playful.

On another note, today had been a wonderful day. Allen hadn't been completely horrified when he had woken after falling asleep in Komui's office, as Lavi had expected him to be. He'd actually lingered for a few moments after being shaken awake before jumping up with a violent red blush covering his face. Lavi had spent the next few minutes trying to convince himself it was because Allen wasn't fully awake yet, but it hadn't worked very effectively.

Lavi forced his mind back to safer thoughts as he remembered how silky Allen's hair had felt under his hand and blushed slightly.

Hermione and Ron had been very quiet after Harry had described his vision, drawn back into their thoughts. Harry himself had tried his best to appear unruffled by the experience, even trying to strike up a conversation with Kanda at dinner (a conversation that ended abruptly with Mugen's point at Harry's throat.)

Unlocking the door to his room, Lavi wondered idly why a bookman hadn't been sent to record the events the three had depicted. It seemed to be affecting more than a small population of people, so it must have been important.

Books were strewn across the floor of his room, overwhelming the colorful rug he had placed in the center to brighten up the place. Every available piece of furniture was also covered with deep piles of books, and Lavi headed for one of these piles. It took a while to slip the book out from under its fellows, but Lavi was patient. This particular novel was slightly depressing, but enjoyable just the same. He hadn't had time to finish reading it due to his bookman duties, but now seemed as good a time as ever. The title was _To Kill a Mocking Bird_.

Laying down on the small part of his bed that wasn't covered in books and paper, he began to read. The beautiful way the words read when he took the time to try and comprehend them transfixed him, the obscure rhythm of the story pulling him into its depths.

--

Allen bid Lennalee and Harry goodnight as he finished his dinner. The others had thought it strange, how slow he had eaten, and he had told them that it was just that he was tired.

In actuality, he was delaying going to bed. He knew he'd be up for hours mulling over the events of the day and wondering if he would get a mission soon. It had been several weeks since his last one, and it was abnormal to go even one week without getting one.

He wasn't especially interested in Harry, Ron and Hermione's story, but it would definitely be another factor in his sleeplessness tonight.

_I'm not very good at reading, _he thought, _but maybe I'll ask Lavi if I can borrow a book._

He changed directions, headed for Lavi's room instead of his own. He'd just knock and ask for a book he could borrow, and then leave Lavi to his rest.

Reaching Lavi's door, Allen knocked gently. When he got no answer, he knocked harder. There was still no answer, so he reached for the knob and was surprised to find that it wasn't locked.

Lavi was sprawled across his bed, filling the only space not covered by books. He had a book draped over his eyes, and the light in the room was left on. Allen called his name, but Lavi didn't respond.

"Lavi?" he said again, inching into the room to close the door behind him. The redhead still didn't respond, so Allen carefully picked his way across the room, trying not to step on books.

"Lavi, could you wake up for just a moment?" he said, shaking Lavi's shoulder. Lavi's head lolled to the side, and the book snapped shut on his nose.

"Ow! Gees, gramps, can't you let me sleep for once?" Lavi said grumpily before realizing whom he was speaking to. "Oh, Allen… it's you. What could you want at this time of night?"

Allen opened his mouth to ask for a book, but his mind was strangely blank. He knew exactly what to say, but couldn't quite remember how to word it.

Lavi looked expectantly up at him, eyes slightly unfocussed. Allen looked away, pink creeping slowly onto his cheeks. As soon as he found his voice, he muttered what he could remember of his question.

"… Can't sleep… borrow a book…"

Lavi seemed to get the gist of what Allen was trying to say and swung up into a sitting position.

"You want to borrow a book, right? Sure, I'll lend you one. Just wait a sec…"

Lavi stood and walked over to one of the piles. He started to try to wiggle one of the books at the bottom out, but the whole pile collapsed on him.

Allen ran over to where Lavi had disappeared, completely disregarding the books underfoot.

"Lavi, are you all right?" he asked as Lavi pushed a few books off of his torso and head to sit up.

"Happens all the time, don't worry abut it. I'll restack them later. Here's the book."

He handed a thin volume to Allen, further extricating himself from the marauding books. He stood… and tripped.

Apparently just before he tripped the other nearby stacks of books had been conspiring to fall, because just as Lavi fell on Allen several stacks of heavy volumes landed on Lavi.

"What an inexplicable coincidence," Lavi commented through his blush.

Another dull crash sounded as more piles rebelled.

--

Ron was completely, utterly, undeniably lost. How he had gotten lost, he had no idea, for he had a map right in his hand.

He had never been good at reading maps, and it didn't help that every hall in this dreary place looked exactly the same to him.

He finally came to a door that he was fairly sure was the door to his room. If he was on the right floor, that is.

Several slightly muted crashes sounded from behind the door. Ron was now surer that this wasn't his room than otherwise, but he opened the door anyway.

A sea of books met his eyes, the remnants of what had probably been majestically stacked mountains.

Ron started to wonder if he had found the library.

"Ow… alright Allen, try and shift the dictionary poking your shoulder a bit to the left. Then I can move the encyclopedia volume on top of it away and start at some of the lighter books."

"And how exactly do I do that? It's poking my right shoulder!"

Ron recognized the voices of Allen and Lavi, both of whom seemed to be mostly buried by the books. Now that he looked, a few tufts of red hair were showing above the books, along with a foot and shoulder.

He quickly scrambled over the books to reach the pair, hoping that he would be able to move some of the books off of them.

--

"Fine, let me," Lavi sighed, lifting the dictionary a little and pushing it to _his_ left. He then pushed the encyclopedia as far away as possible, freeing Allen's shoulder slightly.

The most awkward thing about the situation was the position they had landed in. Lavi's arm had first hit the floor between Allen's head and shoulder, but it had slid outward on a piece of loose-leaf paper and been trapped there, leaving him with only his left arm to work with and bringing his face dangerously close to Allen's. He couldn't say that he wasn't slightly pleased with this turn of events, but Allen was probably just plain uncomfortable and embarrassed.

He carefully moved a small book beside his own ear, hoping to be able to reach a rather more obnoxious book that had wedged itself against his head. When he tried to move that one, however, another book fell from on top of it, forcing his head downward on impact.

"Lav—" Allen started to say, only to be cut off abruptly, turning the last sound into a muted "mmph."

**--**

**Yuugre: Finally, a chapter that was mostly (attempted) Laven. Anyway, I decided to end it there, and this… book thing will continue in the next chapter. By the way, the interior of Lavi's room was based off of Maho's room.**

**Maho: It was not!**

**Yuugre: The difference is that Lavi actually has a space on his bed to sleep if he decides to do so, whereas Maho prefers to stay up all night reading and sleep in school the next day, instead of just moving her precious books off of her bed… and the stacks of books in his room don't fall over nearly as often.**

**Maho: And I don't have encyclopedias in my room.**

**Yuugre: So you admit it!**

**Maho: NO, I don't. All we have left is cake to give out to you reviewers. Be happy with what you get, Yuugre ate everything else.**


	5. O' yasumi

Abligurition – the excessive spending on food and drink

**Yuugre: Hehe… that word fits Cross-gensei perfectly. I apologize for making you wait this long!!! Please forgive me, though I most definitely don't deserve to be forgiven for waiting so horrendously long to update!!**

**Maho: In other words, after the initial and brief depression at the horribly ended D. Gray Man anime, Yuugre started reading **_**angst**_** fanfictions, of all things and at all times. (She ran out of real story, and needed more D. Gray Man to completely rid her of her post-depressionary anger at the producers.) On top of that first mistake on her part, most of said depressing tension-filled fics were Yullen, and she completely lost all inspiration.**

**Yuugre: I'm sorry!!!!!!**

**Maho: Idiot, you can't write **_**fluff**_** if you're intentionally depressed. You could have at least waited until I took over with the plot. Of course, she also had to seek out the second to **_**longest**_** fic in the D. Gray Man section (chapter-wise **_**and**_** word-wise), nearing 50 chapters, with aproximately 3,000 words in each one. She also decided to seek out one of the other longer fics, and read the whole thing. Damn you, Yuugre, at least give me time to actually work on my stories!**

**--**

Another (smaller) pile of books collapsed as Ron accidentally nudged it with his foot in passing. He heard a muffled grunt somewhere as the books landed, he himself only getting out of the way just in time.

Shrugging, he continued to try and shift books off of what he assumed was Lavi, slowly and unsuccessfully. He gave up after toppling yet another small stack, retreating a few feet to assess the situation. He could go get Hermione; she had more experience in these matters. He wouldn't be surprised if her room looked like this.

--

Allen's eyes widened as Lavi's lips met his. It was obviously an unintended act, but it made him blush bright red all the same.

Time seemed to stand still as they lay trapped there, seconds seemingly dragging into hours as Lavi comprehended what had happened. It didn't take long, but Allen's face grew hotter every moment.

Then, to his surprise, Lavi deepened the act, molding his lips around Allen's.

--

Hermione looked skeptically at Ron as he explained what he had found. It wasn't really possible to fit a whole sea of books into a single bedroom, was it? It didn't really matter, just in case it was true, but…

She humored him and followed Ron back to the room he claimed Lavi-san was trapped in. When she opened the door, she was stunned. Even the library at Hogwarts had never seen such a huge collection of informational books!

Ron pointed out where he assumed Lavi to be buried and led the way toward it, carefully navigating across the bookscape.

--

Something in Lavi was screaming at him to stop, but he ignored it. He didn't even notice as books were hefted one by one off of his back and arm.

Allen did.

--

Allen opened his eyes for just a flash of a second, catching sight of Ron and Hermione kneeling on the books beside them, Ron's jaw hanging loosely from its hinges. Hermione seemed more embarrassed than stunned, red-faced and looking away.

Allen separated himself from Lavi, and when he protested gestured toward the intruding pair.

"S-sorry to intrude!" Hermione said, glaring at Ron. Ron finally had the sense to close his mouth, stuttering an apology.

Lavi just blinked up at them for a few moments before pushing himself upright and climbing off of Allen so he could do the same. Allen wormed his way out of the remaining books and stood, mentally hitting himself for getting so carried away.

Lavi was on the verge of walking over to the wall and banging his head against it, though. He had been stupid! What kind of Bookman lost control from simple physical contact?

He knew the answer: no Bookman would ever allow physical contact with anyone they felt remotely attracted to, if they were ever attracted to anybody. In fact, any self-respecting Bookman would leave immediately after beginning to have feelings for anyone.

It was at that moment Lavi decided that 1: he simply didn't care and 2: he was getting bookshelves the next time he encountered Komui.

--

Poor Harry was wondering where everybody had gone off to. Ron and Hermione weren't in the library like they had said they'd be, and even Komui and Lennalee weren't around. He wasn't completely lost, but the current emptiness of the corridors was unnerving. His room had been unfurnished except for a bed and wardrobe, and he needed to retrieve his things from Hermione's handbag before he went to bed.

--

Ron bumped against yet another freshly stacked pile of books, sending them toppling back to the floor. Hermione groaned and started to restack the age-old encyclopedias while ordering Ron to just sit in a clear space and hold still until they were finished.

Ron moved toward the nearest empty bit of floor, tripping over a dictionary on the way and falling face-first against the nearest pile. The clear space vanished underneath dozens of worn paperback novels.

Hermione edited her order: "Just don't move, Ron, you're a walking disaster."

Ron mumbled something with the phrases 'utterly perturbing' and 'completely bent', but was ignored. He complied with Hermione's order, though, and held still while they finished piling the books.

Nearly a half an hour had passed since Lavi and Allen had been dug out, and Ron was still traumatized. No matter how many stacks of books they restored, Ron would inevitably bump into one and they would have to start over.

After they finished, Ron dared to inch forward toward the door but was stopped by the door itself, which was closed. Ron turned the knob to open it and snuck out into the hallway beyond.

As he closed the door he heard a crashing noise, but he didn't dare reopen the door to look for fear of causing more damage.

--

Hermione glared at the door as she stood back up. At least all Ron had knocked over this time was a tipping tower of paperbacks, but a lot of those paperbacks had hundreds of pages in them, and were heavy when combined.

She decided to split the tower into three separate stacks, just so that they wouldn't be so likely to fall over.

--

Allen sat down carefully among the collection of historical fiction novels he had been trying his hardest to pile in an orderly pyramid. It was safer than the huge stacks Lavi and Hermione were recreating, so his hadn't fallen over except when he had chosen a book to thin for a certain spot and it had made the entire thing tip, and even then he hadn't been knocked over or buried.

Lavi noticed that and thought it was a wonderful idea, next to bookshelves. He only wished he'd thought of it earlier, before they'd restacked all the other books.

--

Harry and Ron bumped into each other a few floors below the library. The _real_ library, not Lavi's room.

They literally bumped into each other, because neither was paying attention to where they were walking.

"Oh… hey Harry," Ron said automatically, righting himself and yawning.

"Hi, Ron. Have you seen Hermione? I need to get my stuff." Harry asked, then headed in the direction Ron pointed.

All Ron wanted to do was sleep, but he had to find his room for that.

--

Harry wondered exactly where in the general direction Ron had pointed him to Hermione was. He leaned against a door, about ready to give up his search.

Less than a second later the door was thrown open and Hermione herself stepped out of the room beyond, very nearly stepping on the bemused Harry who had been thrown to the floor.

"Oh… hey Harry," she said apologetically.

Was that all his friends were able to able to say to him today?

"Um… Hermione, I need my stuff from your bag," he said from the floor, waiting for the door to be closed before he dared stand again.

"Oh, of course, Harry. I'm sorry, I had forgotten!" she said even more apologetically than before.

--

Lavi and Allen both sighed as Hermione left, glad that the whole fiasco was over.

Well… not completely. Allen was wishing he had simply ignored Ron and Hermione, even though it wouldn't have been prudent of him. It would probably never happen again, because Lavi had no reason to like him at all.

It had been impulsive and meaningless act, he told himself. Just an accident.

Lavi walked over to where Allen sat, studying the pyramid of books. Now Lavi saw the small flaws with stacking his books this way, namely that he would probably trip over a corner every time he walked past it, and that he'd have to completely disassemble it to get to any of the books in the middle.

Allen looked up from the book he had opened, smiled, gestured for Lavi to sit beside him and then set the book aside.

Just because Allen was convinced Lavi hadn't meant the kiss didn't mean he himself hadn't meant it.

"That was… eventful," Lavi commented.

"Understatement of several centuries, there," Allen said, shaking his head and holding back a giggle. He could _not_ afford to giggle right now.

"Yeah, I think I'm convinced about the usefulness of bookshelves now."

Lavi leaned over to look at the title of the book Allen had been reading.

_Hogwarts: a History, 263__rd__ Edition, Volume 4: Headmasters, Staff, and Other Influential Personages_

He frowned slightly, but dismissed his confusion as Allen shivered and scooted closer to Lavi. Now that he'd stopped piling books (more taxing than it sounds) he was beginning to notice the chill creeping into the room from the walls and window.

"I'll get a blanket," he said awkwardly, and was about to push himself off of the ground when Allen grabbed his elbow.

"No, I'm fine. It isn't that cold."

Lavi sighed and sat back down. Several minutes later Allen shivered again and once again edged closer for warmth.

"That's it, I'm getting a blanket. You're going to freeze at this rate."

And it wasn't just Allen who was going to freeze; Lavi was going to turn into a block of ice any minute now.

Allen nodded in agreement, marveling at how little time it had taken for the temperature to drop so stunningly.

Lavi retuned from the bed hefting an overlarge comforter that hadn't even been visible when Allen had first walked in and threw it over both of them.

"So," Lavi asked, "why did you stay after Hermione left? Don't tell me it was the book, I know it wasn't."

Allen blinked twice. He knew exactly why he'd stayed, but he didn't want to admit it to Lavi.

"I don't really know…" he said vaguely.

Lavi could immediately tell he was lying.

"Tell me the truth," he said, raising an eyebrow, "I promise I won't laugh or be freaked out."

Allen tuned bright red, leaning against the book pyramid behind him, which promptly slid out from under him, dumping him flat on the floor. Slightly pink-faced, he pushed himself back up with one hand.

Lavi just looked mournfully at the books, which had once again been scattered across the floor.

Hoping half-heartedly that Lavi wasn't half as observant as he normally proved to be, Allen tried to hide his blush behind his hair. Lavi caught the embarrassed gesture, though, and restrained himself from pointing out to Allen that he could see him perfectly well, even though his hair.

"… The book…" Allen lied quietly, face burning ever hotter with embarrassment.

_Liar,_ Lavi thought, smirking. Somehow, Allen still seemed to be shivering even with the huge comforter wrapped around him. His normally bright blue eyes were dry and bloodshot, a sure sign of exhaustion. Lavi wondered just how many sleepless nights the younger boy had suffered from lately.

"… Floor's cold…" Allen muttered, shivering again and allowing his eyelids to droop just a bit.

"Then just get off of the floor and sit somewhere else, Moyashi-chan," he said, a teasing note returning to his voice. Allen abruptly paled, probably thinking of the implications of such a statement.

"And no, I won't allow you to sit on my books, since you seemingly intend to stay more than a few moments."

Allen decidedly ignored the way Lavi rolled his eyes in mock exasperation.

"Why would I want to sit on a pile of books?"

" 'Cause it's better than the floor."

_Not by much,_ Allen thought.

"Anyway, Allen, you obviously need some sleep. It doesn't matter if you go to your room or stay here and crash, just get some rest. You'll need it; we're getting a briefing on a long-term mission tomorrow. Besides, if you stay up to long you'll sleep in and miss breakfast."

Allen looked up in time to see the huge blanket being shoved into his face.

"Fine," Allen mumbled through the blanket, standing and stumbling over to the empty bed. "Lavi… I just remembered something I wanted to tell you about, it's kinda important."

"Mnhm?" Lavi asked, bending to pick up _Hogwarts: a History._

"It's about Harry. It's strange… almost like an akuma, but only a little piece of a soul, instead of a full one. That locket they kept passing around, too. And there's no Dark Matter, but it still feels evil…" Allen wrapped the blanket around him before lying down on his side. "Maybe…" –he yawned– "Maybe we should have Hevlaska check again. It's weird, but not an akuma… If it repulses the innocence we should be able to figure things out."

Lavi nodded, mulling over the few things he knew about these stick-bearing strangers. He returned his attention to the book in front of him. He most definitely hadn't seen it before, and he was sure he would have remembered hearing of a place or thing called Hogwarts.

"Good night, Lavi," Allen mumbled.

"G'night."

_Great,_ Lavi thought to himself, _where am I supposed to sleep?_

He decided against sleeping on the floor or his books. Both would be uncomfortable and sleeping on top of books was dangerous, as he had previously learned.

**--**

**Yuugre: You were right, Maho, I can't write fluff while I'm reading angsty and drama-filled fics.**

**Maho: Damn straight, you can't. This chapter was as thick as cement before I interfered.**

**Yuugre: I didn't know that you could write something basically plot less, Maho. And please stop swearing at me, it's not very becoming.**

**Maho: It isn't plot less, it's just plot-deprived.**

**Yuugre: Right… Well, for any of you who haven't voted on your preference for chapter length, please do!**


	6. Would you care to explain?

Apophasis: affirming something by denying it

**Yuugre: I didn't do much in this chapter; it's Maho's 'plot prep'. I guess she's given up on me ever coming up with a good plot for the D-Gray-Man side, and she's taken over with all plot plans. Anyway, the reason this chapter took so long to get posted was 1- Maho got grounded halfway through, 2- my computer died unexpectedly (wee lost half of the chapter) and is still under, and 3- I want to the Anime Banzai last Friday!!!!!! It was a ton of fun!!!!!! I'm going again next year, and nothing will stop me!!!!!!! There was an awesome Tyki cosplayer about three heads taller than me (he hit his head on the ceiling coming up the stairs)!!!!! And I have an announcement: in a burst of unexpected fangirlishness, Maho -who just started reading D. Gray-Man a few days ago- bought a wallet with Allen and Lavi on the front. I got the box it came in (because she had absolutely no use for it) and it's an awesome picture! I bought a Bleach sweatshirt with Hitsugaya on the front (totally awesome, in my opinion), along with a ton of Pocky and Ramuné.** **It was awesome!!!!!!! I would keep ranting about it, but there was a highlight to the day that was even better than everything else: the Q&A with Vic Mignogna!!!!!!!!!!!! I wanted to go to the autograph session, but that was Saturday… But it was awesome!!!!!!!!!**

**Maho: Yuugre, this is an authors' note, not a place to document your fangirlishness. Now on with the chapter!**

**--**

Lavi opened the unfamiliar book, glancing momentarily down at Allen to make sure he was still asleep. He'd freak if he woke up to find Lavi sitting alongside him on the bed, though admittedly he was a bit too close for reasonable comfort. Hopefully, if Allen did wake up he'd stay calm enough for Lavi himself to explain that he didn't want to lose his butt to frostbite.

The Table of Contents could have been a book in itself. Title after title, some of them on the same page as dozens of others, were printed on the page in miniscule type. More than twenty pages flashed by his eyes before something caught his eye, and he flipped back to see it.

A section labeled 'Tri-wizard Champions' had a small picture next to it, subtitled '_Final task, 1994-5, Hogwarts champion Harry Potter reappears at starting point clutching other Hogwarts champion Cedric Digory's corpse._ The photo was fuzzy, the black and white people's features blurred. Lavi looked closer and realized that the tiny picture was moving. He wondered how such a feat was accomplished in a photograph, but set the curiosity aside in favor of studying the names listed.

Many names were listed, along with the years they had been 'championed'. More than several had _killed_ in parentheses beside them. Lavi wanted more background on this 'Tri-wizard Tournament', but no background was provided.

Each of the winners, it seemed, were listed in bold, and the articles were larger than the other two.

Except on one. On one, four names were listed instead of three like the others.

_Viktor Krum – Durmstrang (1994-5)_

_Fleur Delacour – Beauxbatons (1994-5)_

_Cedric Digory (killed) – Hogwarts (1994-5)_

_**Harry Potter -- Hogwarts (1994-5)**_

Lavi peered at the name, wondering if it was just coincidence that Harry happened to share the same first name. But the last name was familiar, somehow.

/_Flashback_/

"_Who are you three?" Komui asked when the trio was herded into his messy office._

"_This is… oh, I'll just let them introduce themselves," Lavi said, sighing slightly as he realized he didn't know their full names._

_He noticed the look Ron and Hermione directed at Harry, who flinched slightly and nodded._

"_I'm Hermione Granger, the redhead is Ron Weasley-"_

"_So I'm 'the redhead' now, am I?"_

"_Shut up, Ronald."_

_Hermione seemed to hesitate before naming Harry._

"_And I'm Harry Potter."_

_Both Hermione and Ron looked startled that there was absolutely no reaction, and Hermione seemed to have come to a firm conclusion to something._

/_End Flashback_/

Oh, so that was where he'd heard the name before. _Harry Potter_. A plain, overused-sounding name. Who would have guessed that it's owner had won any sort of contest?

His eyes were drawn back to the photograph, or more exactly, the subtitling below it.

_Final task, 1994-5, Hogwarts champion Harry Potter reappears at starting point clutching other Hogwarts champion Cedric Digory's corpse._

1994? It could be referring to the number of tournaments that had been staged, but upon further (and more attentive) inspection of the dates beside the names, he found that several sets were dated after the present year, including the set in which _Harry Potter_ had been bolded.

He looked closely at the moving photograph. Over and over again, two figures appeared out of nowhere in the center, one of them holding tightly to both the other figure and what looked like some sort of cup or trophy. Then a tall man with a long beard would appear, along with several others, and attempt to pry the boy away from the unmoving body next to him. The boy would struggle, but nearly the moment the elderly man turned his back, a limping figure would come and drag him away. Then it would start again, repeating unendingly.

Lavi turned to the page indicated beside the name, and sure enough there was a picture of Harry blinking sadly back at him. Lavi ignored the subtle movements of the boy within the picture and read the short biography below it. The page before bore biographies of the other three people, all accompanied by a photograph. He read each of those. Then he went back to Harry's and reread it. Something registered that time. Tri-_wizard_ tournament. It wasn't just some weird name somebody thought up to go with the games. It was literally three _wizards_ competing against each other.

Lavi fought the urge to close the book and bash his head against the leather-bound cover. If it took him that long to react to the word wizard, he was either dimwitted or just too tired for his own good.

He decided that for his own sanity he would assume that he was simply too tired. Lavi snapped the book shut, laying it down beside him and using it as a pillow as he pulled the three fourths of the blanket Allen wasn't using over himself, welcoming the warmth offered by the oversized comforter and promising to nobody in particular that he would show his findings to Bookman and Komui the following day.

That was why he was using the large hard brick-like tome as a headrest. He'd hopefully remember that he'd discovered something if he slept with said findings under his head.

--

Allen woke abruptly right around seven, his stomach complaining that it hadn't had anything to fill it for several hours. He turned to roll out of bed…

… And was promptly poked in the eye by the corner of a book. His exclamation of 'ouch!' woke the redheaded teen whose head was propped on top of that same book.

"Yeah sure, go and blow my eardrums out first thing in the morning…" he grumbled, slurring each word slightly and cracking his eyes open just a bit. "Oh, morning Allen. Why're you crying?"

Allen glared at the offending book with his non-weeping eye, but didn't answer. The bed was in a different place in Lavi's room than it was in his, so the side facing the room was opposite. Of course he would hit something! He was just lucky that it wasn't the wall or Lavi himself…

Yes, he was _very_ lucky that he hadn't rolled into Lavi. Allen's face turned the lightest shade of pink at what Lavi might have thought about that situation.

Lavi was momentarily confused at his lack of response, but caught the irritated glare directed at the book.

"Oh, oops. I forgot that was there. Which reminds me, I need to talk to Komui before he calls in everyone else for the briefing on the mission. You can keep sleeping if you want, but something tells me you want breakfast more than rest."

Allen nodded and turned to roll off of the bed once more (in the right direction this time). He wondered how long he had actually been sleeping. Neither he nor Lavi had checked the clock before going to bed, so it could have been any amount of time.

"Lennalee will come find you when Komui decides it can't be put off any longer, so don't worry about being on time."

"And just why do you have advance notice? Komui doesn't tell _anybody_ they're going to have a mission before the briefing."

Lavi shrugged. "Jiji told me. It's apparently important, but Komui didn't tell the panda exactly what it was."

Allen swung his feet down onto the floor, sitting up quickly and dizzyingly. He fell back down against the mattress covering his eyes as his head began to spin.

"Don't get up too fast," Lavi commented dryly, "you'll get dizzy."

Allen tried again, sitting up slower this time. Lavi grabbed the book and followed as soon as Allen stood up.

"Hey, Allen…"

Allen turned to look at Lavi.

"Yeah?"

Allen's eyes widened for a moment as, for the second time in the last ten hours, Lavi's lips met his. Then they closed contentedly. Lavi drew back after a few seconds, the smallest of smiles adorning his face.

"Thought I might as well give you a real kiss, 'cause the one last night was accidental," Lavi muttered.

"It was?" Allen asked, just as quietly, even though he already knew that it had been.

"Mn. It was."

"Then you owe me more than _one _kiss, Lavi."

"Whatever happened to little innocent Allen?" Lavi asked, allowing Allen to pull him back down to a more manageable height.

_He got kissed by his best friend,_ Allen thought in response.

--

"Komui!"

Said slacking scientist stopped doodling on his paperwork as a flustered and bed headed Lavi rushed into his office carrying a large book.

"What is it, Lavi?" he asked, thinking to himself _Lavi isn't normally up this early, what's wrong with him?_

"I would have been here earlier, but I got held up." Komui couldn't help but see the small, humorless smile Lavi wore as he said it. "Anyway, I wanted to show this to you last night. It's a book that Allen found in my room after we finished re-stacking my books… by the way, I'm going to need either several bookcases or a section of the library, because I don't want to be suffocated by my books if they ever fall again. Read this." He opened the book to a page and pointed to the beginning of a certain part of text.

Komui peered at the idiotically small type, trying to read what had been indicated.

"1995."

"What?"

"1995. It's dated 1995," Lavi said, "Took me a right long time to notice, though.

Komui looked closely at the date indicated.

"Why yes it is. Is the picture…?"

"Moving? Yeah, I noticed that, too. But look at the name and read the entry."

Komui squinted, wondering how anybody could possibly read such small print, and how any typewriter could type so tiny. A surprised look came over his face as he read further into the article, even though he struggled to even see each separate word.

_Harry Potter was an unexpected and to some unwanted fourth champion in the 2004-05 Tri-wizard Tournament. Many suspected him of tricking the judge to enter. These suspicions were only fed by the newly implemented age rule, forbidding anyone underage (17) from entering. Nevertheless, other rules stated that because the Goblet of Fire had chosen him, he had to continue with the tournament. Before the Weighing of the Wands, reporter Rita Skeeter interviewed him about his views on the tournament, quoted below:_

"_An ugly scar, souvenir of a tragic past, disfigures the otherwise handsome face of Harry Potter, whose eyes are filled with sparkling determination as he answers my first question._

"_I'm confidant that I will fare well in the coming tasks, and that I will win the tournament." When I ask how he feels about being up against three others who were older and had more magical experience than him, he scoffs. "I'm sure that I can match them easily," he tells me, smirking. __(For full article, see page d-34, volume 6)__**Absolute bullshit**_

_The first task…_

Komui stopped reading. He wondered why the newspaper article had been crossed out, and why someone would write something so vulgar beside it. Anyway, he had seen enough to be confused.

"What's a 'Tri-wizard Tournament'?"

Lavi shrugged. "I have no idea, but there's something else I want to speak to you about."

Komui nodded at him to go on, wishing that he had better background knowledge on the things referenced to in the book.

"Allen mentioned something that was bothering him… yesterday. It was about Harry. I think we should have Hevlaska check to make sure that he isn't an akuma one more time." Lavi seemed perfectly serious. Komui wondered why he couldn't be like this all the time. There would be a lot less shouting from Kanda if he were…

"Yes, I'll be sure to do that, it's always good to be safe. Did Hevlaska ever actually check him the first time?" he asked Lavi, realizing that Harry had had his fit before she ever touched him.

Tripping and cursing could be heard from the hallway outside the door. Then Kanda's irritated voice drifted into the room.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, wandering around the halls under some sort of invisibility device?"

"H-how? I've never been… how did you see me?" came Harry's voice.

"Idiot, I don't need to see you to know you're there. Now answer the question, or be skewered."

Komui took this as an opportune moment to both carry out Lavi's request and save their newfound friend's life. Unfortunately, it didn't seem that Harry knew just how dangerous provoking Kanda could be.

"I see no reason to answer your question, and I'm in a hurry. Good luck skewering me."

"Harry!" Komui called, slightly panicked now. Either Harry hadn't heard him, or he was choosing to ignore him. Either way, a moment later Komui and Lavi both blanched at the sound of ringing metal.

"Petrificus Totalus!"

A thud sounded, and the upper half of Kanda's body fell into sight through the doorway. The rest was still hidden out of sight.

"Harry!" Komui called again, running to the door. He glanced down at Kanda's stiff form. "What did you do?"

The annoyed scowl on Harry's face was accentuated by his mussed-up hair and the way the light glinted off of his eyes.

"Um… could you come in for a moment? There's something I need to ask you." Komui cast another glance down at Kanda, wondering why such a proud samurai would continue to lie there.

Harry stuck something up his sleeve before nodding and stepping over Kanda's prone form to enter the office.

--

Lavi blinked. Was Yuu-chan lying on the floor outside Komui's office, or were his eyes deceiving him? He walked forward and prodded the stiff body's cheek. It felt like a stone. Lavi shrugged and picked Yuu-chan up, carrying him into the office.

Komui was in 'serious mode', sitting behind his desk with his eyes hidden by the light reflecting off of his glasses.

"Harry, we're going to have to take you to Hevlaska again. We have to be absolutely sure that you aren't an akuma."

Harry seemed ready to ask what an 'akuma' was and spew a few vulgarities along with it, but nodded.

"Good. Lavi, will you accompany us?" Lavi smiled an idiotic smile and put his hands behind his head.

" 'Course I will."

"But first I need to get Ron and Hermione, they're expecting me in the library," Harry said, glaring at Yuu-chan.

"Of course," Komui answered.

--

"Twelve plates of mitarashi dango, please, and a glass of milk."

Jerry raised an eyebrow at the complete lack of healthy dishes in Allen's breakfast, but immediately set to work preparing the huge order of dango.

It didn't really bother the energetic chef that Allen ate so much. In fact, he took great pleasure in preparing the multitude of dishes. It was much more interesting than preparing Kanda's usual morning soba, or Kanda's usual midday soba, or even Kanda's usual evening soba for that matter.

Actually, anything was more interesting than that. He had been making the same three varieties of soba for years now, and he was beginning to wish that the man would branch out and try something new.

Jerry handed Allen his dango, and prepared to take the next order.

--

Harry walked quickly down the hall toward the library, very aware of Komui and Lavi following him with Kanda in tow. This was why he had attempted to use the cloak.

The fact that Kanda had detected him while he was under the cloak unnerved him. While he had experienced his share of close calls, there had never been more than a sneaking suspicion on the part of the teacher or student about to run into him. Kanda had wrenched the cloak right off of his head without hesitation.

He pushed open the library doors.

"Harry! What took you so long?" Hermione called from the table she and Ron had situated themselves at. Ron gestured urgently for him to come over.

"Why is it so urgent?" Harry asked as he sat down.

"Muffliato!" Hermione muttered, waving her wand discreetly around them.

"Tell me what's so urgent that I was woken by a panting Ron banging my bloody door down," Harry repeated.

"Well…" Hermione started uncertainly, "I… I lost one of my books while Ron and I were helping Lavi clean up after a… disaster."

"That's hardly enough reason to panic."

"Well… this isn't really relevant to the conversation, but what we found when we dug out Lavi and Allen was plenty of reason to panic…" Ron muttered.

"The point is that if any of them found the book, they'd find out about wizards. They're muggles, as far as I can tell, so that would be breaking the Statute of Secrecy. And my new copy of _Hogwarts: A History_ has six volumes. Without volume four, it's virtually useless, because it'll be missing tons of vital information."

Harry gawked at her.

"You brought _Hogwarts: A History_ with you? What use is that?" he asked incredulously.

"Yes, she did. But even worse than Hermione here losing a book" -Ron cast a scathing glance her way- "We found out that there isn't a single record in the entire library after the end of the nineteenth century. That's almost one hundred years of records missing, and they say that there's two _bookmen_, whatever those are, recording everything that happens here. The people in charge pointed me to an old guy that looks like a panda, so Hermione asked to see the most recent records. Nothing past 1897 there, either. Though the old panda wasn't very happy about showing the records to us…"

"Um… Harry, what did you do to Kanda? It looks like you used a full-body bind, but you wouldn't… would you?" Hermione asked carefully, seeing Kanda's stiff form on the floor in front of Lavi and Komui.

"Yeah, I did. He was ready to run me through with that sword of his. Can't remember the counter spell though."

Hermione rolled her eyes and muttered the counter spell, pointing her wand at Kanda subtly.

--

Kanda sheathed his sword (which had previously been frozen by his side) and glared a death glare at Harry. How the scrawny boy had managed to hold him frozen like that was beyond him, but he was humiliated. The brat would _pay_ for making him put up with Lavi carrying him around.

The strange newcomers seemed to be frantically consulting about something, but he couldn't hear a thing. All he heard when he tried to concentrate on their voices was a strange buzzing noise.

_Where's Marie when you need him?_

They seemed to come to a decision. Harry stood, and the others followed.

"So, what was that all about, Harry?" Lavi asked in a singsong voice. Oh, how Kanda hated that voice. It always signified trouble for whoever it was directed at.

"Hermione and Ron wanted to tell me something."

"Aw, but you didn't say anything! All I heard was 'buzz buzz buzz'. Are you bees?"

Kanda knocked the end of Mugen's hilt into Lavi's stomach as he turned.

"Shut the fuck up, baka Usagi."

Lavi clutched his stomach dramatically and grimaced up at Kanda.

"But Yuu-chan, I wanna know why I couldn't hear anything!

Kanda glared down at the hunched over redhead, holding back a sadistic smirk. It never failed to help vent frustration, being able to look down on another person in a more literal sense. Of course, he was always forced to look down at the moyashi, and that just made him angrier, but looking down at someone who was normally nearer his own height like this was satisfying.

"Komui, can we go down to Hevlaska's chamber now?" Harry asked, pointedly ignoring the arguing pair.

--

Harry recalled the end of he and his friends' discussion as he followed Komui down to Hevlaska's chamber.

"_We won't ask about the book, just in case they found it. It would be best to deny that we've ever seen the book if they decide to find it's owner, because it has a lot of information about wizards, and we don't want them to know what we are," Hermione said quickly._

"_I thought we came to that conclusion a few minutes ago," Ron said, irritated._

"_Well, if we know how to deal with it, why don't we end this chat for now? Komui wants me to see Hevlaska again," Harry added._

_Hermione and Ron looked at him sharply, but both then nodded and stood after him._

Harry wondered if both of them really had to follow him all the way to Hevlaska's chamber. He didn't want to have an audience for this, just in case the cause of his lapse yesterday had been Hevlaska herself.

The strange elevator brought them down into Hevlaska's chamber, where the ghostly exorcist herself greeted them kindly.

"_What brings you here again so soon?" _she asked kindly. Komui started explaining whatever reasons he had, but Harry wasn't listening. He was preparing himself, just in case his scar began to burn at Hevlaska's touch again.

"Harry?" Komui urged him forward toward Hevlaska. Harry reluctantly stepped forward, closing his eyes behind his glasses in anticipation into her gentle embrace.

To his surprise, there was no pain. Even the nearly constant tingling in his scar had disappeared. His mind felt perfectly clear, with no heavy oppression weighing over it.

Harry's eyes flew open at the strange sensation. Everyone else in the room seemed to be completely enraptured, also. Hermione and Ron seemed quite confused, while Lavi and Komui were more in shock.

"_The mark of a curse…" _Hevlaska said softly, _"And yet… A second of the few unlucky enough to have encountered a great evil early in life has come our order."_

A gently glowing green object floated in front of Harry's face. It hovered there just long enough for him to get a glimpse of it before it started zooming in circles around him. It came to rest in his wand pocket, and Harry could feel warmth spreading through him.

"_Thirty percent… fifty-six percent… seventy-nine percent… ninety-three percent… ninety-eight percent… Ninety-eight percent is the highest point of synchronization."_

Lavi and Komui gazed upward, jaws lying against the floor. Harry reached inside his robes to pull out his wand, and then gaped at it in wonder.

It had completely changed shape, with nearly four inches added it its length. White veins of crystal wended their way through the wood, all of them leading back to a crystal that had appeared on the end of the handle. It fit in his grip perfectly, unlike any wand he had ever held before. Gone were the uncomfortable ridges defining the shape of the once slightly too short handle, replaced by elegant wing-like curves that traveled tapering from the top of the handle to the very tip of the wand.

He looked around again, realizing he was being set back down. Komui was approaching with a look of pure wonder on his face. Hermione ran at him the moment his feet hit solid floor again, gathering him into a hug as soon as she was close enough. Lavi seemed completely disconcerted, as was his fellow redhead Ron.

"Harry, what was that?" Hermione asked, releasing him from her bear-like embrace. Grabbing Harry's wand from his grip, she looked closely at the crystal veins. "You can see the phoenix feather core, now. Strange, wands have never been made with any type of stone. Apparently, it obstructs the magic's pathway, resulting in the spell backfiring. And usually the core of a wand needs to be completely encased in wood to work as an amplifier… this is Fawkes' feather, right?"

Harry nodded, stunned at her evaluation of his wand.

"Harry," Komui said, "would you like to tell us what all of you are, now? We found the book."

All three wizards froze. How could Komui know that the book belonged to one of them? Unless he had heard their conversation in the library, and that was impossible due to muffliato.

"Wh-what book?" Hermione asked benignly, feigning ignorance. Harry and Ron recovered quickly, both of them being sure to paint confused looks onto their faces.

--

"Allen!" Lennalee called, running towards the white haired teen.

"What is it, Lennalee?" he asked, turning to face her when she stopped.

"Nii-san needs you in his office now. I'd suggest you go quickly, or he may get distracted…"

Allen nodded and set off towards Komui's office.

--

Lavi looked over at Harry, Ron and Hermione. Ron had sat down a distance away from the others, though not far enough to seem overly suspicious. Hermione was wringing her hands nervously, while Harry kept looking at his innocence-imbued stick in wonder. Nobody spoke, leaving the silence to thicken in the air around the group.

Lennalee burst back into the office and immediately slowed to avoid the piles of paperwork that had accumulated on the floor.

"Allen will be here in about a minute."

Komui smiled at his beloved little sister, thanking her profusely for going to get the white-haired boy. It didn't take long before Allen himself pushed open the door just enough for him to slip into the room.

"Good to see you, Allen," Komui said lightheartedly before motioning for him to sit on the already crowded couch. "Now that we're all here, I'll start the briefing for this mission. As you all know, the recent death of General Yeegar has caused an up in security. We will be assigning all exorcists to one of four teams, to protect each of the living generals. Allen, Lavi, Lennalee, Harry, you will all be assigned to General Cross. You will need to find him first, of course, so I wish you four luck."

"But Harry just became an exorcist an hour ago! Shouldn't you try to find out more about his innocence, give him some training, stuff like that?!" Lavi objected.

"I'm sorry, but these orders are from the higher-ups. I have no choice but to send _every_ exorcist to one team or another. I'm just glad that Kanda refused to have a new exorcist in his group, we don't need somebody murdered by a comrade."

Lavi could tell that Komui was very sure that such a scenario would definitely be the case after Harry's unexplained and complete forced paralysis of the older man earlier.

"Um… I understand what an exorcist is, since you explained it to us earlier, but… what's going on here?" Ron asked in an irritated tone.

"Would you care to explain to us why you three have been vehemently denying for the past hour and a half that this book is yours first?" Komui asked in return, a glint in his eye making all in the vicinity shrink back for a moment.

"It doesn't belong to any of us! " Hermione repeated for perhaps the fiftieth time that day. Lavi could tell that this was going to get nowhere.

"Then why does it have your name inside the front cover, Hermione?" he asked as innocently as he could.

**--**

**Maho: And thus my horrible attempt at a plot spitball came back and splatted in my face…**

**Yuugre: It isn't that bad, but… there wasn't enough Laven!! –cries-**

**Maho: You got the waking-up scene, be glad of that. Otherwise there would be absolutely no Laven at all. We're back to cookies, due to a shortage of cake –glares at Yuugre-. (Always blames Yuugre)**

**Yuugre: We're also sorry for not responding to reviews very promptly lately; October is always swamped like this… On the bright side, the first term of school ended and we have Halloween off! I'm planning on doing a Halloween-centric oneshot for the occasion, but I'm not sure if I'll get it done in one day, or even three for that matter…**

**Maho: I've started noticing that the ANs at the beginning and end of every chapter are getting annoyingly long. We'll work on shortening them, hopefully to get back to the blissfully short comments that graced the first chapter. Word count without ANs (this chapter): 4529 words. Wohoo!!**


	7. What's a 'Snitch?

Coruscation: a brilliant flash of wit

**Yuugre: Once again, we're sorry for taking so long to update! Writers block, school, you've heard all these excuses before. But we have a couple of new excuses: It's almost Maho's birthday, and Twilight the Movie came out!! Also, due to popular vote, we'll be doing longer chapters less often. This means that we'll actually try to speed up our pace a little bit (this slowness is ridiculous) and give you a 10-16-page chapter (.14 font. It'll be more like 8-12 in .12) when we update.**

**Maho: I just realized that we haven't been putting disclaimers on our chapters. Harry Potter is copyrighted to JK Rowling, and D. Gray-Man is copyrighted to Hoshino Katsura. Book seven (HP) spoilers in here, so if you haven't read book seven yet or haven't finished it completely, be warned.**

**--**

Harry and Ron stared at Hermione incredulously. She had _written her name_ in the book, and then proposed that they deny having ever seen it?

Hermione shifted uncomfortably. She hadn't even remembered that little fact. She had written her name inside the cover of all her schoolbooks, just in case she lost them.

"Um…because I wrote it in?" she said, knowing that denying it was pointless now that they had evidence.

"Now that we've established this," Komui cut in, "would you mind answering the questions we have? It's not that we don't trust that your initial story was true, but this definitely brings some blatantly evident holes into light."

Still in shock, all three nodded.

--

"All right, the four of you will leave tomorrow morning. Be sure to pack tonight, you won't have time after waking up."

"But what about us?" Ron and Hermione both objected loudly, standing up as they shouted now incoherent reasons why they should go.

"I'm sorry," Komui said, trying to placate them and failing, "but I can't let you two go."

Ron looked to Harry. "Are you going to help argue our case or not?" Harry shook his head.

"Ron, Hermione, both of you have gone through too much trouble and danger for my sake. If you follow this time, you might die."

Hermione glared. "When we came with you, we agreed that we might die. What do you call what we've been doing for the past seven years if not dangerous? When we went after Quirrel for the sorcerer's stone, we knew there was a chance we would die. When Ron went with you into the Chamber of Secrets, he knew that it was probable that he would die. When we met Sirius in third year and you and I used a time turner to rescue him, we knew that if we were seen we might be killed. In fifth we pushed you to teach the DA, knowing that every member would be punished if we were found out and we could be expelled. When Ginny, Neville, Luna, and the two of us went with you to the Ministry, we all knew that any number of us could be killed in the venture. And we most definitely knew that we might have died last year, while the DA battled the Death Eaters. Don't tell us that we can't come just because we _might_ die!"

Harry winced. That was exactly why he didn't want them to come. Every time they _might_ have died, they nearly did. Next time, they might actually die. That much was evidenced and branded on his mind by the deaths of so many others around him.

"And every single one of those times the three of us spent weeks recovering, Hermione. Did you think of that? Next time, you might not recover."

-

Lavi watched interestedly as the strange new trio argued. Every line of the argument revealed something new about Harry's past, or events that hadn't been detailed in the article he'd read. None of them seemed to realize just how much attention everyone else in the vicinity was training on them.

The relatively small couch didn't seem so crowded when two out of the three people sitting on it were no longer crammed uncomfortably in between the arms on either end of the couch.

"Eh…" Allen said, almost in Lavi's ear. Lavi jumped a little, not expecting to be able to hear anything over Ron and Hermione's shouting.

"Hm?"

"What are they talking about?"

Lavi blinked. Of course, Allen hadn't read or the book.

"Well, you know the book you found in my room? It was Hermione's. She left it there by accident, and… well…apparently Harry's been through some pretty horrible stuff."

Allen looked surprised, but nodded in understanding. Lavi grinned and turned his attention back to the shouting duo. They were now arguing with each other instead of Harry and Komui.

"All right, all right! You two can go. Just be sure not to get in the exorcists' way when fighting," Komui said as loudly as he could. The two immediately quieted and crammed themselves back in-between Lavi and Harry.

"Everything I've told you here is in these envelopes, along with a few other details you might want to know. Now go rest, or train, or whatever!!" he exclaimed, pointing out the door. All five fled.

--

Kanda was fuming. That idiot Harry had done something strange to him, and then the Baka Usagi had carried him all the way to the library! The scrawny, black-haired boy would _pay_ for embarrassing him like that.

He reached his room, snapping the door shut behind him. Kanda barely glanced at the lotus sitting suspended in an hourglass on the small bureau in the center of his room before turning to grab the small bag always kept at the ready for packing for numerous missions. He placed a few uniforms inside of it and then sat on the edge of his bed.

The prospect of having to tag along after Old Man Tiedoll while protecting him was irking. That man with his 'oh, but my son, you should forgive and forget' and 'but we're a family, we should do this together' always managed to irritate him to no end.

The image of Harry's slightly panicked and angry face as he pointed a stick at him and said some weird mumbo jumbo jumped back into Kanda's head. Oh, yes, that boy would pay.

Just how, he hadn't figured out yet.

--

Harry, Ron, and Hermione all gathered in Harry's room to repack everything they had retrieved from Hermione's bag. It really wasn't much, but as they figured they'd find their way back to their own time soon, they didn't want to leave anything behind because they might not return.

Harry only packed two of the three uniforms he had been given. They had the same basic shape and maneuverability as his wizard robes, but the design was similar to the uniforms of the other exorcists. The one thing he was glad hadn't found its way into the design was the ridiculously large buttons. The usual small loop-clasps made up the closure.

He gazed at the silver Rose Cross sewn into place where the Hogwarts crest would usually be. The weight over his heart would take some getting used to.

"Harry? You still awake, mate?" Ron asked, concern lacing his voice. Both he and Hermione had received new robes made of similar material to Harry's (minus the silver cross and stripes of white) and had now packed them away.

The quick efficiency of the science team at getting these made had astonished all of them.

"Yeah, just thinking."

Ron seemed to accept this answer and sat carefully at the foot of the bed.

"Hey… it seems that they expect us to stay for a while. What'll we do if we somehow find our way back sooner than they expect?"

Hermione looked up at Ron's sudden serious tone. Harry continued to gaze at the uniform in his hands.

"Then we'll be gone, and they won't be able to do anything about it. Neither will we. We'll be dealing with our own war again," she answered.

"Oh," Ron said, serious mood gone, "the last time we were near a town I heard a couple of wizards talking about something called 'Potterwatch'."

"How do you know they were wizards?" Hermione asked.

" 'Cause one of 'em had on a bikini with leg-warmers and an open sweater, and the other one was wearing a tailcoat with pajama bottoms and a pink scarf around his head."

"Well that what is this 'Potterwatch'?" Hermione asked.

Harry tuned them out. He felt pain building slowly in his scar, and just wanted to be alone. At one point Hermione pulled out a wireless radio that she had packed for some stupid reason and Ron began fiddling with it.

He flopped down onto the narrow bed and closed his eyes, willing the soft feeling of loneliness to go away. His two best friends were right here. What was there to be lonely about?

The answer: Ginny. Luna. Neville. Draco. Sean. Seamus. Dudley (somehow).

The faces of those he loved, hated, admired, barely knew, mildly liked, and never thought he'd cared about all flashed past the backs of his eyelids as he attempted in vain to sleep.

Then those he felt guilty about having let die hovered hauntingly in his mind.

Cedric. Sirius. Mad-eye.

Dumbledore.

Harry realized that he was hopelessly homesick. He wanted to see Ginny's smile again, hear Luna's strange theories, and maybe even endure the flash of Colin's camera whenever he caught Harry in the halls. He'd rather not put up with getting beat up on by Dudley again, but their last moments together evidenced that Dudley had changed for the better since the dementor incident, if even only a little.

Ron and Hermione had evidently sensed that he wanted to be alone, and left.

Shivering, Harry slipped off of the bed. There was no way he would be able to sleep right now. As he started to pace, he thought of the day's events and how they might affect his finding the horcruxes in the near future. He thought about anything but those people it was likely he would never see again.

--

Lavi pushed aside yet another book in frustration. He'd only found a few books in the order's extensive library that even mentioned magic or wizardry, and most of those portrayed it as the magic and black arts of myths and legends. Somehow Lavi knew that there was more to what the wizards were than they had told, even after they had explained everything about Hogwarts, the Ministry, and other wizarding schools that they knew.

Harry had been careful around the subject of dark magic, as had the other two. A mention of unforgivable curses came up at one point when he had inquired further, but they had skirted revealing any details there, too.

They had also avoided the subject of why they had been camping instead of going to their final year of school. Komui had gotten Ron to say that they were on the run, but Lavi had seen the small lie in his eyes.

Footsteps echoed and Lavi looked around to pinpoint where they were coming from. He spotted Hermione pulling one of the dustier tomes from a low shelf, then flip it open and sit right where she was to read.

Lavi wondered what the book was about. It obviously hadn't been pulled of the shelf for at least a year, and apparently the girl had brought her own mobile library with her, somehow. Lavi had caught her pulling several large books out of her small bag.

Deciding to ignore the work Bookman had told him to do for the time being, Lavi walked towards her.

"Hey Hermione. What are you reading?" Lavi hoped that his voice didn't sound forced; he didn't actually feel like socializing all that much.

"I'm reading a book that was reportedly destroyed about a century ago. Well, a century before my time, that is. I haven't been able to find a copy of it, despite constant rumors that someone found it. I never thought that a muggle library would have it, though, because it explains the origins of horcruxes and how to make them. I thought it might help to know exactly how they're made. When destroying them, anyway. The last thing I want is one of us making one… they're evil objects, and tearing one's soul for the purpose of living longer is unappetizing at the least." Hermione seemed to realize that she'd said too much and quickly covered her mouth with her hand. Lavi thought that this description of 'horcruxes' (which had been mentioned once in the wizard's explanation as why they were hiding in a forest) was surprisingly similar to how he might describe an akuma.

"I think Komui brought it in to see if he could imitate an akuma structurally, for training exorcists more efficiently. He decided that it wouldn't help the exorcists after all and put it in the library. I remember reading it, at one point. It made me feel as if the Millennium Earl himself had written it. Of course, there are several variations in the processes, but it was unsettlingly similar to how an akuma was made. Of course, it was probably us exorcists who destroyed all the copies of that book, if there's any connection at all."

Hermione contemplated this. "I already have a book that details how to make a horcrux, but it doesn't explain why it works the way it works, or really anything other than how to bind your soul to the object. It's also filled with all sorts of other dark magic, so I don't really like to read through it. This, however, explains the process and details in depth, with several variants of the traditional horcrux."

This deeply perturbed Lavi. If they were so evil, why would anyone make one consciously?

--

"Hey, Lavi?"

It was later that night. Lavi had gotten the bookshelves he'd asked for and Allen had offered to help organize the books and get them on the shelves.

"Yeah, Allen?"

"You've been thinking to hard."

"How d'you figure that?"

"You haven't been talking. You're normally really loud and talkative, but you've got a perfectly serious expression on your face and haven't spoken except when spoken too."

In truth, Lavi was thinking hard. He'd known that there were still holes in the cloth woven by the three wizards, but he hadn't noticed the largest of them: the horcruxes. Why were they so similar to akuma? Why had the book been destroyed in their time? He just wanted answers, and nobody seemed able or willing to give them.

"I do have something on my mind."

"As do I. It's probably nearly the same thing. What are you thinking about?"

Lavi bit his lip. "Horcruxes."

"What?" Allen's face displayed utter confusion.

"I saw Hermione in the library today. She was reading a book I read a few years back – a book marking the predecessor of akuma, also known as Horcruxes. A horcrux is an object that someone has embedded a piece of his or her soul in. If the information is correct, it requires murder to accomplish, and the sole intent of that bit of soul is to hide itself, or, in the event that the owner dies, bring him or her back to some semblance of life. Unlike an akuma, the soul is tormented only after the horcrux is destroyed. That's all I want to know. The book she was reading detailed how they were made, the exact structural content, everything. She said they needed to find a way to destroy them. An accessible one, anyway. I kept thinking how, when I read that book, it reminded me of akuma."

Allen was silent for a while. Just as Lavi was about to ask what he'd been thinking about, Allen spoke.

"I was thinking about the piece of soul attached to Harry, and the other one attached to the locket. Both fragments seem almost like part of the same soul… malevolent, evil… and when Harry collapsed the other day he just seemed to… disappear behind it, like it was consuming him temporarily. It wasn't chained to him like a soul is chained to an akuma, and it seemed to even be willfully torturing him. It's worse when he wears that locket. It affects all of them. Do you think…?"

Lavi shook his head no. "For them to be carrying around a horcrux would make sense, as they're searching for ways to destroy them, but the book didn't mention it being possible or practical to attach the piece of soul to a living being. That way if the being dies, so does the horcrux. Anyway, I don't think we should tell Komui or anyone else. It could get them in serious trouble that they don't need."

"Yeah, they don't need any more trouble. But Lavi, do you think… that innocence might be able to destroy these 'horcruxes'? If they and akuma are so similar, I mean."

"Maybe. I don't want to think about it, because the thought that someone would intentionally create something so similar to an akuma using their own soul is disgusting."

Allen finished placing the pile of books Lavi had shoved at him on the shelf, and sat down to wait for the next. Lavi had stopped sorting books completely, though, and was staring sadly downwards.

"Then don't," Allen ordered. Seeing Lavi so solemn and sad affected Allen too, and made him all the more worried. "Don't think about it. Help them whenever you feel the need to, but don't worry about what they try to keep hidden. If they ever want help with that, they will tell us the full story, and we will help them. But for now, don't think about it."

Lavi looked up, eye betraying slight surprise at Allen's speech. But a moment later it melted into silent thanks. Allen beamed back.

Lavi leaned over and kissed Allen's forehead before returning to sorting books.

--

"In truth, we should have been leaving from the hospital in the rewinding town. It would have been more convenient and we'd have saved time, but Supervisor Komui didn't want Lord Walker to fight with his eye damaged. We are far behind schedule, now, so we will be spending only as much time in each town as we need to search for the general for the next week or so," the finder informed them. Harry had been startled when the short, rather pudgy man had addressed him as 'Lord Potter', and had immediately requested he be addressed as 'Harry'. The finder had ignored his request.

"Follow me, Lord Exorcists."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione weren't carrying suitcases. Instead Hermione carried her small handbag.

"We will be jumping in five minutes."

Their jaws dropped. "Jumping?" all three asked.

"You'll see," Lavi assured.

--

"We're jumping onto the train? How… Why? It's impractical and dangerous!" Hermione complained.

"Hurry up and jump or you'll miss it," Lavi replied, jumping down to the roof of the train with Lennalee.

"It's worth a try," Ron said, and also jumped.

"You really should hurry," Allen said as he, too, jumped.

Only Harry, Hermione, and Bookman were left.

"C'mon, Hermione. Jump."

Hermione shook her head and watched Bookman jump also.

Harry grabbed Hermione's arm and jumped, allowing her to cling to him in fright. It was easier than actually carrying her as they fell (not to imply that she was heavy).

They slid through the escape hatch down into the car, Hermione first. The rest of the (quite large) team greeted them as Harry followed.

"Glad to see that you two made it," Lavi commented laughingly. Hermione glared at him for a moment before entering the compartment the conductor pointed them to.

"So how will we be finding this 'General Cross'?" Harry asked. Everyone turned to look at Allen. Allen seemed uncomfortably squished between Ron and the wall.

"Timcampi. He can point us in the general direction of my master; it'll be more accurate as we get closer. We're headed east, for now. As we get closer we'll start searching towns where he's been sighted to see if he's still there."

Harry peered at the large snitch-like thing flying above their heads.

"I'll have to take your word for it. That little thing seems a little to much like a snitch for me to take it seriously."

The exorcists looked blankly at Ron, who had made the comment, while Hermione and Harry looked exasperated.

"What's a 'Snitch'?"

The next hour and a half was spent explaining the workings of Quidditch to the completely baffled exorcists.

"How can you shoot the Quaffle through a fifty-foot hoop with only a broomstick?"

"Who controls the Bludgers? You know, catches them after the game?"

"How does the Snitch look anything like Timcampi?"

This last question was from Allen, and in response Harry pulled out the small bag Hagrid had given him for his birthday. He fished around inside and grabbed the snitch Dumbledore had left him.

"This is a snitch. It's a really old one, but it should give you an idea."

Everyone except Bookman gawked at the Timcampi-like golem-thing as it unfurled its delicately feathered wings and beat them feebly.

"Speaking of, Harry, had any ideas on what the message means?"

Harry shook his head, putting the snitch back into the bag. As he pulled his hand back out, Harry felt a sharp piece of glass cut his middle finger.

"Ouch! I'd nearly forgotten I had that in there." He pulled out the fragment of Sirius' mirror and looked at his green eye reflected in it.

Guilt attacked him again. If only he had remembered the mirror after he had seen the dream of Voldemort torturing Sirius, he might have been able to affirm he was all right and Sirius wouldn't have died.

A flash of pain pierced his scar and Harry winced. He was almost grateful for a moment that it had begun to burn, because Harry couldn't concentrate through the pain.

"What's wrong, Harry?" Allen asked. He could see the piece of soul beginning to spread and hide Harry, and noticed him wince just as it started.

"It's nothi-"

"It's your scar, isn't it, Harry?" Hermione interjected, "You should be able to block it. That's why Dumbledore wanted you trained in Oclumency. Clear your mind and ignore it!"

"You know it won't do any good, Hermione. I never actually-"

"Try!"

This last came from Lavi, who was listening and watching intently. He wondered what 'Oclumency' was and wanted at least one answer from the multitudes that crowded his mind.

Harry blinked and grumbled a response, wincing again. He closed his eyes.

"Everyone keep quiet," He advised, "or it won't work."

Now even Bookman watched Harry and only Harry. A blank expression covered his face for a fraction of a second before a flicker of emotion passed across it. Then his face cleared for another few moments before he winced.

Allen watched with growing horror as the soul began to obscure Harry faster. Silence pervaded until he cut in.

"Stop! You're right, Harry, it won't help. So just stop."

Harry looked at Allen, startled, just before his scar split in another wave of pain and separate picture took dominance over his eyes.

"_We've found them, My Lord. We had help, from some fat guy who looked like a marshmallow. He said he'd take us to the Potter brat if we'll help him. He'd take all of the Death Eaters, too. Said all he wanted us to do was kill some other brat that's been getting in his way once he showed us."_

"_Tell him I will accept this offer. We have wasted too much time in our search so far and have found no trace of Potter or his mudblood and blood-traitor friends. Tell him I will have no problem wiping out whatever brat he asks us to kill."_

"_Yes, My Lord. Right away."_

_A smirk curled Voldemort's lips._

"_I'm coming, Harry."_

Everyone stared in horror as one final yell flew from Harry's mouth and he lay quivering on the compartment floor. Lavi felt guilty for telling Harry to do whatever was supposed to help.

"I…. I told you it wouldn't help. Oclumency works best when you're trying to keep someone from _reading_ your thoughts, not when they're trying to put thoughts into your head. Or, in this case, are subconsciously putting thoughts in your head."

A sigh of relief filled the compartment. Everyone had thought that he might not recover for a few more minutes.

"So…" Allen asked hesitantly, "What did you see?"

Harry pushed himself up into a sitting position, trying to ignore the cold sweat on his forehead and back.

"He's coming."

**--**

**Yuugre: Halfway through this chapter Maho started banging her head on her keyboard. Wanna know why? Because she realized that she'd forgotten that Allen's eye was out of commission when they started after Cross, and that… they left from the hospital in the rewinding town. Anyway, komen nasai for taking this long to update!**

**Maho: We have a new poll up, by the way. It's "Would you throw sharp objects at us if…" Go vote if you want to know the rest.**

**Yuugre: And thank you, 2stupid, for giving us the idea of bringing Millenie-chan to Voldy. Even though there won't be any battle of the supervillans. (Regretfully enough, because that would be awesome.) And we have cake, cookies, or leftover Halloween candy. Your pick! (so much for shortening ANs.)**


	8. I told you they would be here

Loganamnosis: a mania for trying to recall forgotten words

**Yugure: Okay, "Would you throw sharp objects at us if we paired Harry and Kanda?" is now closed. Maho wanted a more easily assessable answer, so it has been changed to "Would you stop reading this story if we paired Harry and Kanda?" Go vote. We're also sorry for taking so long to update. The excuses would just bore you, so we won't list them.**

**Maho: Neither of us have ever wished to own D. Gray-Man or Harry Potter. Well… I haven't.**

**--**

The Millennium Earl's smile widened as the robed man wearing a mask delivered Voldemort's message.

"Very good, very good. Should we start now? Of course we should. How soon can he get all of you here? Immediately, I hope. 3"

The man stuttered and nodded before apparating back to Voldemort's location.

--

"Of course. Your mark?" Voldemort hissed, holding out his hand. The Death Eater stuck out his arm, trembling slightly as Voldemort grabbed it and pressed the tip of his wand into the center of the tattoo on his forearm.

Barely a minute passed before nearly every Death Eater not in prison stood before Voldemort in the Malfoy's formal lounge.

"We are leaving to prevent a rising problem or two. If you are not ready to leave at the present, then be ready in the next five minutes. We depart immediately."

A few of the Death Eaters disappeared for a few minutes before reappearing looking exactly the same. Voldemort turned the messenger.

"Go tell him we are ready and need him to come to us."

--

"Go to them 3? I suppose I'll manage. Rhode? 3"

"Of course, Duke," Rhode answered, opening the checkered door behind her and stepping aside to let the Earl through. The messenger left once again.

In a matter if minutes the Earl and Rhode had reached the manor's lounge and began to usher the group through to the other side.

"How can he be coming, Harry? We don't even know how we got here. How could he follow us?" Hermione asked, chewing on her fingernails worriedly. "He might be trying to trick you again, you know. Make you start to panic and reveal where you are. I highly doubt the Death Eaters have made any progress in their search for us lately."

Ron snorted. "Of course they haven't made any progress, Hermione! We're in a different time frame, how could they?"

Harry kept his silence, contemplating who the 'big white marshmallow' was. He had heard Lavi describing the Millennium Earl as being really fat with a top hat, but that description could be applied to any number of people.

The three of them had quickly requested to the conductor to have a separate compartment temporarily. He had readily agreed and led them to the front of the car and into an admittedly smaller but much more private compartment.

"Harry, you all right mate?" Ron asked.

"Harry, Voldemort is just trying to mess with your mind. Don't let him! If they show up, then we worry about it. Not now. Not when it could impede your ability to judge a situation properly and put you and others at risk."

Harry nodded silently and, issue resolved, the trio made their way back to the exorcists' compartment. Instead of trying to shove themselves back onto the seats, Ron and Harry sat on the floor near the door while Hermione took the seat next to Bookman.

"What was that all about, you three?" Lavi asked, a smile on his face and genuine curiosity in his eye.

"We chose to have a private discussion on what our options were at this point. In actuality, we don't have many. One: Panic; Two: Leave and Hope Nobody Else Gets Hurt; Three: Stay Where We Are and Ignore It; Four: Stay Where We Are And Be Wary. Apparently we're going with option four," Hermione said huffily. To late, she realized once again that she had spilled too much information to the bookman apprentice and covered her mouth. Lavi smiled to himself and started humming.

"You should be more careful about giving away information so freely, Ms. Granger. It might be safe when the only ones around are friends, but in any sort of confrontation it could be dangerous." They all looked at Bookman, Lavi slightly wide-eyed and now silent.

"Well..." Lavi started, recovering slightly from the shock of Bookman giving someone they had all just met advice he might give an apprentice (he deduced this by the fact that Bookman told him the exact same thing at least twice a day) "It is true that you haven't been very careful about what you've told me, Hermione."

Ron and Harry both seemed exasperated.

"Hermione, why do you feel the compulsory urge to share whatever random fact or piece of information that comes to mind with anyone in the vicinity?" Harry asked, his face hidden in his hand. Hermione turned red and began digging in her bag for something. It must have been near the bottom, because her arm disappeared up to above the elbow at one point before she pulled out a small, battered, forbidding-looking book.

"Harry, just in case your vision was true we'll have to use polyjuice potion to disguise you again. Problem is, Mad-eye's supply won't go much farther. It'll only last through one or two more doses – small doses, mind you – if we all take it. I think there's only about six hours worth for one person left, so you'll be the only one taking it. I can use a disillusionment charm on Ron and I. We won't be seen, and you'll look different for certain periods of time. One is less suspicious than three. But... we'll need to make more to make it work for more than a couple of days."

Now Ron's face was hidden in his hand. They should have discussed this in the separate compartment, not with others around.

"Hermione-"

"Allen, Bookman, Lavi, Lennalee- would you four mind a detour to London?"

Lennalee looked up and shrugged. She seemed perfectly content with being left out of the conversation, and also seemed to be avoiding meeting Allen's gaze. Hermione wondered if she was always like this, but didn't comment on it.

"I'm not entirely opposed to it..." Lavi said, also shrugging.

Allen also agreed, and Bookman nodded his consent.

--

When the seven got off of the train, they found themselves in a small town. It was plain, almost quaint, but no one had even taken in the entirety of the platform before Hermione demanded a map. Lavi pointed down the platform at the old-looking map posted on a billboard, and Hermione hurried off to study it.

"So... how exactly do we intend to get to London in the time frame Hermione set up...?" Allen asked hesitantly. Harry looked confusedly over Allen's shoulder to study Lennalee as she turned her head away and started walking down the platform.

"Um... you'll figure it out. It's kind of like how we ended up here... except that we hope to actually get to where we intend to go this time," he answered, wondering if something had happened to upset Lennalee. Now that he thought about it, she had seemed slightly unhappy with Allen even when they first met her... though perfectly friendly with everyone else.

Allen, though he didn't exactly understand, nodded.

--

"Alright, I want you all to grab onto one of the three of us. Harry, Ron, you'll be able to apparate there by yourselves?"

Ron simply gaped at her. Harry immediately protested.

"Hermione! I've only apparated more than five feet once in my life! And that was an emergency! What if I get splinched? Worse, what if they get splinched?!"

Lavi didn't quite know what Harry meant by 'splinched', but he didn't like the sound of it. Lavi heard Allen gulp beside him. Apparently neither did he.

"Um... what about the finder? We can't just leave him behind," Lennalee interjected. Hermione nodded, admitting that they would need to bring the finder.

"Hermione, the first place the Death Eaters will look for us is wizarding sites. Are you sure about this?" Ron asked solemnly. Concern showed in his eyes. "Besides, only wizards are supposed to go to Diagon Alley."

Hermione abstinated.

"But we need the polyjuice potion, and we don't have any ingredients!"

"Nor do we have a month to let it sit and stew, Hermione. If we don't have the time to make it, why go to Diagon Alley?" Harry asked. Hermione looked down and mumbled something, but nobody around her caught exactly what it was.

Voldemort grinned and licked the edges of his lipless mouth in anticipation. The fat man who called himself the Millennium Earl stood beside him, twirling an umbrella with a small pumpkin on the top.

"See? I told you they would be here 3. Now, you see that white-haired brat there? He's the one I'd like you to kill for me 3. How convenient, they ended up together. Two birds with one stone, right 3?"

Voldemort smirked and nodded as he looked at the large group through the gap between to cars of the train. They were naive, naive and foolish.

"I'll have a few of my Death Eaters take care of your request, but I would like to take care of both agendas as an opportunity presents itself now. Do you think...?"

The Millennium Earl laughed creepily.

"I have enough akuma nearby to launch an attack. 3"

"I think we should wait here, just for the time being. Maybe for a half an hour, to see if the townspeople have seen the general, maybe they can point us to a definite of where he's headed," Lavi said, perfectly serious about their mission, but still looking around like he wanted to explore.

Hermione seemed a little put out at having their 'detour' delayed, but admitted it would be for the best.

Frowning, Harry squinted at what he'd thought was a top hat through a gap in between the train cars. It quickly disappeared, leaving him confused. His scar was tingling ever so slightly… more of a warning than anything else. It bothered him that he might feel it here.

"Dark Clerks? There are Dark Clerks here! We are saved!"

None of the group had a chance to look around and see the middle-aged man speaking before there was an explosion behind them. Harry whipped around, drawing his wand, to see the train in smoldering flames.

Allen, however, stood stock still where he was, barely registering the heat at his back. His eye activated and he turned around slowly, seeing at least fifty akuma as they came over the newly formed fiery horizon.

"Akuma!" he warned in an urgent whisper.

Lavi surreptitiously slipped his hammer into his hand and waited for the akuma to get near enough to target, while Lennalee activated her Dark Boots and Bookman readied his needles.

Ron and Hermione drew their wands silently also, eyes casting about worriedly to see if any other dangers were near.

And they were right to worry about such a thing. Death Eaters began to apparate all around them, wands drawn and pointed.

"Stand still," Harry warned, turning around to point his wand at the nearest Death Eater. The Death Eater's wand shifted from pointing at one of the other exorcists to pointing at him.

"Cruci – "

"Silencio!" Hermione cried, silencing the burly Death Eater.

Harry rounded on another, muttering "Diffindo" and aiming at his wand. The fact that such a basic spell shouldn't shatter a wand didn't cross his mind. Taking a moment to soak in the shocked expression that showed through the mask, Harry turned his wand on another robed figure that had been about to cast a binding jinx on one of his comrades.

Hermione and Ron also began attacking the surrounding Death Eaters, stunning and disarming their opponents. The exorcists watched in slight amazement as each masked figure fired a few spells – most of which missed – and was sent staggering to the ground. If only they would stay down.

Their attention was dragged back to the akuma, however, as bullets began to rain down from level 1 and 2 akuma advancing overhead.

Gritting his teeth, Lavi muttered "Odzuchi Kodzuchi, Ban, Ban, Ban!" His hammer quadrupled in size until he slammed it down against a level 1 akuma that dared come a bit to close.

Explosions rocked the station as the fight escalated. At one point Harry used a momentary lapse in the magical side of the fight and turned on the akuma as well.

"Sectum Sempra," he hissed, and multiple gouges appeared on several of the level 1 akuma. They fell to the ground and slowly seemed to crumple inwards before exploding.

Before he could attack again, he was drawn back into defense against magical attacks.

--

The akuma were being destroyed faster than they should have been, considering their numbers. The magical attacks were slowing, with nearly all semi-fatal spells directed at either Allen or Harry. Harry would point his wand at an akuma and mutter "Sectum Sempra" whenever he had the chance, which became more and more often.

Several akuma seemingly collapsed without the help of Lennalee, Allen, Lavi, or Bookman after about ten minutes, and each kept trying to see the culprit after the akuma fell. All they saw was a blot of black marred by a pale oval and a pure white streak.

Four last akuma fell to the varying weapons and the fight was over. Innocence was deactivated, sighs were allowed to escape, and Ron wobbled before falling over, victim of a final jellylegs jinx. Harry and Hermione would normally have laughed, but instead Hermione simply pointed her wand at him and muttered the counterjinx before sitting down herself.

Lavi and Allen both immediately started looking around for the one who had been destroying the akuma who wasn't a known exorcist. They caught sight of a tall man with fangs protruding obscenely from his lips before he glanced over at them and flashed away with a snarl. They glanced at each other and both shrugged with nervous grins on their faces.

Lennalee wandered over to congratulate Harry, Ron and Hermione for their excellent work. Harry looked at her with tired, demented eyes and a slight smile on his face.

"You okay, Lennalee?" he asked politely. Lennalee was reminded faintly of Allen, who was polite and kind no matter the circumstances. Then she shook her head, reminding herself that Harry was much taller than Allen and was rather rude quite frequently.

"Yes. You?" she answered, expecting an 'I'm fine' or 'I'll be all right'.

Instead, what she got was Harry looking over at Hermione and saying "It's your turn."

Harry pulled the locket over his head and was about to hand it to Hermione when Lavi and Allen came up behind Lennalee and Lavi interjected "Wait!"

Everyone turned to look at him, Harry still about to drop the locket into Hermione's outstretched hand

"I – " Allen elbowed him in the ribs – "Alright, _we_ have a hunch about that locket. You need it destroyed, right?"

Ron and Harry glanced at each other, came to a silent agreement, and glared at Hermione. She grimaced slightly.

"So," Lavi continued, "why not see if the Innocence can destroy it?"

They were both battered-looking, but had a generally pleased air around them. The end of a lock of Lavi's hair was smoldering slightly, but he didn't seem to notice the heat or the smell.

Lennalee seemed slightly confused and blinked at the rest of them, hoping for an explanation. Bookman was scrutinizing Lavi intently, a concentrated look on his face. Both were as silent as the rest of them for a moment.

"Well," Harry said, reasoning that nobody else was about to say anything, "we need to open it before we can destroy it. That we're sure of. We don't exactly know how to open it yet, though."

"That isn't quite true, Harry," Hermione corrected, "Do you remember the discussion we were having before… we came here?"

Harry nodded slowly, remembering that they had spent some time discussing how to destroy the horcrux currently in their possession. Opening it had come up, and…

"Oh," he said lamely, "But you know I can't do that really at will, Hermione. It helps if I'm actually talking to a snake, rather than some carving."

"Harry," Ron said with a roll of his eyes, "If you did it in second year you can do it now. And wasn't there that time you were telling me about a couple of summers ago, when you were about ten?"

Harry turned beet red, remembering that yes, he had in fact told Ron about that incident through mail during the summer before fourth year. It had just been too funny to not tell.

"Fine, I can do it, but I don't like to! It makes me feel… evil, or something. The only other person known to be able to speak parseltongue is Voldemort, and I don't like that. You can't blame me, seeing as he's probably why I can speak it at all!"

The exorcists were blinking at Harry, both slightly surprised at his outburst and very confused about what the hell the three wizards were discussing. Only Bookman seemed to understand.

Hermione and Ron had flinched, and both decided to let the matter drop. Lennalee, however, did not.

"Well, if it can be opened it would be best to give it a try now, am I correct? It may become a hindrance to our current mission, and that is most definitely not something we should allow. Harry, would you? I'm guessing that you really would prefer not to, but whatever it is that you could do to open it would most likely be helpful."

Harry sighed, pulling the locket back toward himself with an unhappy sigh.

"Who will take care of it once it's open, though? He asked. Ron cleared his throat.

"Harry… Do you think that new wand of yours would act like a normal wand, maybe? I mean, wands don't work well if they're used by someone other than their owner, but they still work, right? Maybe…"

Harry got what he meant and handed over his wand.

"It's worth a try, Ron."

He put the locket down on an upturned piece of broken cement and took a steadying breath.

"Anytime you're ready, Harry," Ron said, pointing the wand carefully at the horcrux.

A strangled hissing sound escaped Harry's throat, after which he coughed loudly and violently several times. _Concentrate,_ he told himself, _the engraving is a real snake, staring back at you, waiting for instructions…_

He tried again, hissing and spitting his order to the snake. _Open up…_

The hinges creaked as the locket slowly opened. An eye sat behind one of the panes, spinning to assess any potential threat.

It came to rest on Allen. Allen stared back with his bright gray eyes wide. Gray met black for a sparing moment before something began twisting up from the glass, becoming a face.

The face was more of a twisted mask of black and white, with an inscribed pentacle for one eye and a whirling shadow for the other. The mouth was a twisted clown's grin of black. Tendrils of black connected it to the locket, pulsating slightly and shifting constantly.

But that wasn't all that made Allen stiffen, gazing in horror at the horcrux now opened on the ruined concrete.

--

_It's horrible,_ Allen thought through his panic and disgust. The piece of soul embedded within that locket was truly horrendous without its protective shell wrapped around it. Shapeless, screaming in pure anger and hate with none of the sadness of an akuma, the horcrux was terrifying. The edges of it were rotting and stained with blood. As he examined it closely, he could see the small strands of another soul binding it in place. The blood came from there.

Allen barely registered the mask of black and white as it spoke to him. He had seen the same mask once, when Mana had first cursed his eye.

"_You killed me, Allen."_

The words, barely heard, struck a chord somewhere in Allen. They made him want to cry.

"_I cursed you for it! I hate you, Allen!"_

Allen shook his head slightly, knowing dimly that the tears akuma cried were of love, not hate. It did not prevent the shout from affecting him, however.

The bit of soul was lunging at him, tearing at the lax bindings, stretching to strangle him within its shapeless grasp. Curses of fury and hate spat from it.

"_You are a worthless worm, Allen. I never loved you. You were nothing but a plague, an extra mouth to feed on the road. You always fell down and complained 'I can't, I can't, Mana'. Do you know why I helped you up every time? Because if I didn't, you would get up anyway and cry and complain about it even more with that annoying little voice of yours."_

Allen was trembling. He told himself over and over that it was just the lie of the truly demonic soul shrieking at him, but it was _Mana's_ voice that came from it, twisted and mechanical as it may be. It was _Mana_ who had always encouraged Allen and told him he loved him, and now it was _Mana's_ voice tearing all of that away.

"_You're pathetic, Allen."_

Allen crumpled just as the stretching, screaming horcrux was about to reach him. Sobs were wrenched from his form and he shook uncontrollably, tears of black running down his left cheek and tears of silver down the right.

"Ron!" someone shouted, and there was a flash of light. The hateful screeches turned to screams of pure agony, filling Allen's ears. He quickly moved to cover them, but it made no difference.

Arms were wrapped around him, trying to comfort. A hand was rubbing his back in slow, calming circles.

None of it helped as Allen watched the edges of the soul rot and bleed, while the thin strands binding it glittered and disappeared. It was gone several agonizing seconds later, during which Allen passed out cold and sweating in Lavi's arms.

**--**

**Maho: We'd like to apologize again for the late chapter… and it's still too short!**

**Yugure: You may have noticed the name change… I just fixed a typo in my name is all.**

**Maho: We would like to encourage you to review and vote in the new poll, even if you voted in the old one. This one will give us a more definite answer than Yugure's roundabout 'will you throw sharp objects'. Sorry, there are no cookies this time…**


	9. I have to know

Macarism - pleasure in another's joy.

**Yugure: Yeah, yeah, we're sorry for the cliffie. Actually, it should be Maho who is sorry, not me. She's the one that wrote the last chapter. I'm (mostly) writing this one, as she left a Laven invite at the end for me. The Krory thing will be changed, due to… well, yeah; I think you know what I mean. Allen does have his eye back, and he's kind of out of it… oh, well. We just need Krory to show up. That's Maho's job. ******

**Maho: There ish no ownage here… I'm so tired… (When did I get allotted to disclaimer duty?) Oh, and vote on the poll…**

**Yugure: Hey! I almost forgot… WHO WANTS TO JOIN ME IN MY QUEST TO MURDER FUNIMATION FOR RUINING THE DGM DUB????!!!!**

**--**

Allen's right eye flickered slowly open. His head hurt, and it felt like his left eye was bursting out of its socket.

A blur of red was above him, but the fog over his vision from sleep hadn't receded enough for him to make it out in any more detail.

Of course, just a moment later he didn't need to.

"Allen! You had us all worried there for a while. I'm so glad you're awake! The others went with the mayor for something, but they left me behind and even Jiji went with them, which is kind of weird since he practically never leaves me alone but I'm so happy that you're awake!"

Allen winced slightly at Lavi's loud voice from above him. His vision cleared a little bit, and he jumped a little at Lavi's closeness. He was sitting on the edge of the bed and leaning in toward Allen's face, concern reflected heavily in his eye.

"Er… Lavi…" he tried to say something, but it came out kind of mumbled and incoherent after that point.

"Oh," Lavi sat up straight, one hand scratching his head with a bemused expression on his face, "Sorry, Allen. I was just a bit worried, you know… Hey, we should be able to leave tomorrow, if Harry, Ron and Hermione have anything to say about it. They didn't want to do whatever the mayor of this town requested, so they decided to repair the tracks and station… It's amazing, what they can do with those wands. Harry is doing a bunch at a time, but Ron is barely doing any and Hermione is somewhere in between the two. Probably has to do with his innocence, but –"

"Lavi, shut up. You're making a fool of yourself," Allen advised. Lavi feigned a stab to the heart and fell down 'dead' across the bed at Allen's knees.

"That's mean, Allen. Really harsh, you know," he complained, rolling onto his side and propping his head up on his elbow.

Allen rolled his eyes and leaned back into the pillows. A vision of the horcrux flashed through his head, but Lavi sitting up again and stealing a quick kiss before situating himself on the chair beside the bed instead quickly dispelled it.

Allen's face turned pink, and he turned away from Lavi in embarrassment.

"That isn't the politest of things to do, Allen. You're making me feel more uncomfortable by being like that."

Allen turned his head back to Lavi, blush gone and a slightly indignant look on his face.

"If you're going to give me a kiss, can't you do it less like you're some sort of thief? That was a bit short." Now his indignant look was a full-on pout.

Lavi grinned mischievously and slipped one arm behind Allen's shoulders, pulling him gently up to rest against the headboard.

"All right then, but I can't have you falling asleep on me. That sends bad vibes, you know. Don't want to think I'm boring or anything."

Allen had to laugh a bit at his comment. "I've been sleeping for how long? I don't think I'm about to fall asleep just so soon."

"Four or five hours, at most," Lavi said before situating himself on the edge of the bed again. Allen seemed to contemplate this for a moment, but Lavi didn't give him too much time before gently pressing his lips to the smaller boy's.

"You're still a thief," Allen mumbled into the kiss, "Just a less conniving one."

Lavi pulled back, trying to hold back a snorting laugh.

"And exactly why am I a thief?"

Allen shrugged, grinning in his usual blinding way.

"Because you are."

--

Hermione was still put off at not being able to visit Diagon Alley, but the overall feeling of relief that had washed over the three of them when the horcrux had been destroyed still lingered over the trio.

"Well, a train will be able to pass through, at least," Hermione commented when they had stopped trying to repair the damages done and sat together on a little patch of grass left untouched by the battle.

"But do they really need a train? It might be faster it we apparate," Ron asked tiredly. Hermione seemed to contemplate this, while Harry just shrugged.

"I think it would be slightly safer to use public transport, to avoid splinching. I'm sure they don't need that particular inconvenience," Harry said with a slight laugh.

He then started staring intently at his wand again. It seemed to act as an amplifier for his magic, and had acted much the same way for Ron, though not so strongly. The difference in use seemed no different than it would be with a normal wand passing from user to user.

"Besides that, how are we supposed to search for horcruxes if we aren't in the same time as they are?" Ron asked. Both Harry and Hermione had no sufficient answer.

"Well, I don't think we really need to worry about that now, as Voldemort is in the same time as we are."

They fell silent. It wasn't long before all three had fallen asleep spread out on the grass.

--

Lavi sighed. Allen was asleep again, despite complaining that he was hungry and trying to stay awake for Lavi's sake.

He sighed for a different reason as his own thoughts replaced the visions of the outside world he was receiving though his one green eye. Bookman would be furious if he ever discovered the feelings Lavi held for the angelic white-haired exorcist that he had, by all rights, only met quite recently. In fact, it wouldn't matter how long he had known him, or even that it was Allen, just the feeling. It was an attachment, and attachment was bias.

But thoughts and speculations, he told himself, were just that. They were unconfirmed and, often enough, unneeded. All that mattered were the facts, things that were definite, things that _were_.

Fact one: He had come to care for – maybe more – Allen Walker, Destroyer of Time.

Fact two: Bookman warned him almost daily that attachment and care would not only cause him to act irrationally, but also create bias in his mind and through that in the records he wrote.

Fact three: Even though he knew that Bookman would be all too eager to pull him out of the Black Order until such time as he had control over his emotions before it became irreversible, he didn't want to leave.

Fact four: He was afraid of the possible eventuality that may come from this.

He was afraid to give up his position as a bookman's apprentice. It was the only thing he had held dear for most of his life. The knowledge that he would become a bookman and record the secret history, know things others didn't.

The same way Allen had only loved akuma for so long.

Lavi buried his head in his hands. He knew that there was a fifth fact in this situation, one more thing that would make him truly regret kissing Allen for the first time, and all of the times after that, but he didn't know what to add. Even if he knew what there was to add, he wouldn't want to.

Feeling slightly depressed, Lavi looked at Allen again. The pale face surrounded by hair the color of starlight looked at once perfect and troubled. Lavi wondered what might be bothering him if Allen were thinking about it even in his sleep.

Allen's eyes were fluttering open and shut rapidly, telling subtly that he was trapped in the throes of a dream. Lavi had a feeling that it was about the horcrux, as it had affected Allen so strongly.

He was mostly wrong.

--

"_Mana!"_

_The little boy's brown eyes were filled with tears as he screamed his father's name, tears that reflected sadness and desperate hope._

_The simplistic metal skeleton shuddered, and the boy smiled at it in joy._

"_Mana –"_

"_How could you, Allen? How could you turn me into an akuma!"_

_Hope and joy gave way to fear and rejection._

"_But Mana, I –"_

"_I – I curse you, Allen! I curse you, I curse you!"_

_The boy looked broken. He did not attempt to stand when he was knocked down with the force of the skeleton's blow._

_-,_

_The boy shook his head._

"_Why should I go with you? I want to stay here with Mana! He's mad at me, I need to apologize!"_

_The man with long red hair squatted in front of the white-haired boy, an annoyed look on the half of his face that could be seen._

"_Kid, that there you have is an anti-akuma weapon. Whether you like it or not, whether _I_ like it or not, you have to come. You can't mourn your father forever. He's gone. Gone, boy. You saw what happened when you tried to bring him back. I can train you to be an Exorcist. You'll kill the people that have been brought back so that more people don't die and less people will be sad. It's a heroic job, if you look at it right. Come on. Do you want other people to feel how you do?"_

_The boy shook his white head again and accepted the hand extended to help him up._

"_Does Mana hate me?"_

_-,_

_The soul of the akuma in front of him was in terrible condition. It looked like a mummy that had long ago begun to fall apart._

_It was the soul of a level 2 akuma, not unbearably broken but depressingly so. That soul would be in pain even after it was freed. Not as much pain as it was in now, but pain was pain. At least it would not be tormented and forced to harm others._

_The girl grinned maliciously and said something. It made no sense._

"_If an akuma is not destroyed by an innocence, Allen – like if it self destructs – it doesn't go to heaven."_

_Allen's eyes widened as the strange umbrella counted down._

"_Two!"_

_He lunged forward in panic, thinking only of saving the akuma in front of him._

"_One!"_

_An arm caught Allen and pulled him back just as the outer frame of the akuma exploded._

_The akuma's bonds fell, and so did the soul. Red light engulfed it as it screamed and cried out in pain for help. The sight was terrible._

_-,_

_Blood. Blood and tattered edges, a soul bound to an object with the threads of another soul._

_Why would someone do something like this to themselves?_

"_You're pathetic, Allen."_

_--_

The castle stretched up imperiously in front of the large group of exorcists and villagers. The stone doors were slightly ajar, but nobody attempted to slip through.

"G-good luck, Dark Clerks! We shall meet you here… once the vampire is extinguished!" the mayor stuttered. The entire 'angry' mob of villagers backed up several paces.

"Don't worry!" Lennalee said, waving, "We'll take care of the problem!"

The mayor gave weak thumbs up from behind a tree.

--

"I – I did it again. I became a monster! How could I? How could I?"

"Shush, Aliester. From what you've told me, you saved lives today. Those children and the villagers were being attacked, and you helped. You aren't a monster, Aliester."

Crowley sobbed into his cape, not looking at the woman.

"I love you, Aliester. You are not a monster."

--

Allen's eyes fluttered open several hours later. His left eye hurt and felt swollen in its socket still, but he could see with it.

Lavi was slumped across the bed at Allen's knees again, snoring lightly. No doubt he had deemed the bedside chair too uncomfortable to sleep on.

Dragging his legs slowly out from underneath Lavi, Allen swung out of bed and began walking toward the door. Having reached it, he turned around.

"I'll be back soon, Lavi. Don't worry. I just have to know."

Allen looked at the floor before walking quickly back to Lavi's side and planting a quick kiss on his cheek.

"I have to know if Mana really hates me."

--

Allen shook Hermione awake gently. He held a finger to his lips when she opened her mouth to speak.

"Hermione, you need to go to London for something, don't you? Well, I need to go there for something, too. It would be easier –" he looked around to make sure nobody was listening – "to get what we need with less people around, right?"

Hermione nodded silently.

"Let's go, then."

**--**

**Maho: I didn't touch this chapter, I swear. All I did was edit the mistakes Yugure made.**

**Yugure: I wonder how Lavi will react when Allen and Hermione turn up missing… of course I know, but it's fun to imagine, isn't it? Anyway, don't forget to vote on the poll or you'll end up with an additional pairing that you don't want!**

**Maho: Cookies for this chapter's reviewers… We pretty much have any kind you could want. We're sorry that chapter 8's reviews didn't get answered, but we're having organizational problems, as always.**


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